1 1 




\ 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

OP 

SUBJECTS 

IN THE 

HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY, ITS NATURAL 

FEATURES AND BOUNDARIES. ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF 

ITS EARLIEST KNOWN INHABITANTS. SUBJECTION TO ROME. 

CONDITION OF PROVINCIAL SERVITUDE. HISTORICAL OB- 
SCURITY, AND VARIETIES OF RACE AND LANGUAGE, RESULT- 
ING FROM THE INROADS OF BARBARIANS. B.C. 110 A. D. 

500. 

Page 

Aspect of the Country j Strabo's Description cf the 

Alpine Regions - . - - 2 

Earliest known Inhabitants a Race of Gallic Celts - 3 
B. C. 111. Ally themselves with the Cimbri and Teutones ; and, 
under their youthful General Diviko, defeat a Roman 
Army led by the Consul Lucius Cassius - -4 
60. Stimulated to Conquest by a Glimpse of Civilisation and 

Luxury . - - - -4 

57. Invade Gaul, having first burned their Habitations, and 

even their Corn - - - -5 

Repulsed by Julius Caesar; offer to treat with him; 

totally defeated, and compelled to Submission - 6 

Received as Allies of Rome, but curbed by Fortresses 
and Colonies - _ _ .7 

15. Roman Conquest of Rhaetia - - 7- 

A.D. 69, Helvetic Insurrection under Vitellius ; Conduct of the 

Twenty-first Legion, surnamed Rapax - - 8 

Aulus Csecina suppresses the Insurrection ; demands 
the Execution of the Helvetian Leader - - 9 



mi 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



I 



A. D, Page 
Julia Alpinula, her filial Piety, Fate and Epitaph - 9 
Claudius Cossus saves his Fellow-countrymen from Ex- 
tirpation - - - - 10 



69 — 450. Helvetia subject to Rome ; all Nationality extinguished ; 

Government of Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, and the two 
Antonines ; Oppressions of their Successors and sub- 
ordinate Officers of the latter - - - 11 
Diffusion of Christianity in Helvetia - - 12 
432 — 500. Barbarian Inroads on the Empire; the Invaders re- 
ceived as Roman Allies, and their Hostility bought off 
by Grants of Land - - - - 13 
Settlements of Burgundians, Alemanni, Franks, and 
Ostrogoths ; Obscurity thrown on History by their 
Ravages ; Division of the Land among the Con- 
querors ; Destruction of Roman Monuments and Im- 
provements - - 14 
450. Clovis conquers the Alemanni at Zulpich; embraces 

Christianity with all his Franks - - - 14 

Origin of the French and German Languages in Swit- 
zerland ; characteristic Features of the Eastern and 
Western Inhabitants - - - - 15 



CHAP. II. 

MIXED POPULATION IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN PARTS 

OF EUROPE. GRADUAL DEVELOPEMENT OF THE FEUDAL 

SYSTEM. JUDICIAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. DE- 
GRADATION AND EXTINCTION OF THE CLASS OF COMMON 

FREEMEN. FOUNDATION OF TOWNS CREATES A THIRD 

ESTATE IN THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 

Early Institutions of the German Tribes ; Military Ser- 
vice; Public Assemblies; Allodial Possessions; Feudal 
Tenures - - - - - 17 

Laws rude and imperfect; most Crimes had their 

Money Price - - - - 18 

Ignorance of the Rules of Evidence gives rise to Trial 
by Ordeal, Trial by Battle, and other Devices equally, 
or more, irrational - - - - 19 

Helvetia under the Frank Kings of the Family of Me- 

roveus - - - - - 19 

Union of the wholeFrankishDominions under ClothairIL 19 
Improved Cultivation ; favourable Influence of religious 
Establishments ; Foundation of the Monasteries of 
St. Gall, Disentis, Zurich, Lucerne, and Romain- 
motiers - - - - 20 



534—751. 

613. 
628. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. IX 

Page 

Decline of the Merovingian Race; its Fall; Pepin; 
Charlemagne - - - - -21 

Visits Helvetia ; encourages Education and Agriculture 23 

Partition of the Empire of Charlemagne ; Second or 
Little Burgundian Kingdom; simple Mode of admi- 
nistering Justice in Helvetia; Works of ancient 
Authors preserved and copied by the Monks of 
St Gall ; Utility of pious Foundations in the Infancy 
of national Culture - - - - 24 

Incursions of the Magyars or Hungarians ; Mode of 
Defence adopted by Henry the Fowler ; Foundation 
and Fortification of Towns ; Creation of a Class of 
Burghers - - - - - 25 

Jealousy of the new Municipalities in the Nobles and 
Clergy ; nearly entire Extinction of the Class of 
common Freemen ; rise of a new and independent 
Body of Men in the Towns - - - 25 



CHAP. III. 

STRUGGLE BETWIXT THE PAPAL AND IMPERIAL POWER FOR 

SUPREMACY. CHARACTERS OP HENRY IV. AND OF HILDE- 

ERAKDj AFTERWARDS POPE GREGORY VII. THE CRUSADES. 

THE DYNASTY OF ZiERINGEN IN HELVETIA. 

Power of the Church ; manifests its Growth in the 
eleventh Century - - - - - 28 

1039. Henry IV. ; Pope Gregory VII. - - - 29 

1090. Dynasty of Zasringen in Helvetia - - -34 

1095—1291. The Crusades; their Effects; improved Condition of 

the Country - - - 35 

1152. Berchthold IV. augments the Number of fortified Towns, 
and encourages the Influx of Burghers by granting 
them Immunities, and Privileges - - - 37 

1191. Berchthold V. lays the Foundation of Berne, which he 
erects into a free Town of the Empire ; refuses the 
imperial Crown for himself, and reigns in Helvetia, 
last of the Line of Zeeringen - - - 39 

1114—1240. The Freemen of Schwytz afford the first Demonstration 

of their Existence - - . . - 41 



CHAP. IV. 
TIMES OF RUDOLPH OF HAPSBURG* 

1218. Birth of Rudolph of Hapsburg ; his Character and early 

Conduct - - - - - 42 



A. D. 

751. 

768. 
987. 



919—936. 



X 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



A. D. Page 
254 — 1273. Interregnum in the Empire - - -43 

1250. First League of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden with 

Zurich - - - 44 

1254 — 1273. Rudolph supports the Towns, and employs their Anns 

against the Nobles - - - - - 45 



Accepts the Vogtship of the Forest Lands and the mili- 
tary Command of Zurich ; and conciliates the Abbot 
of St. Gall in order to attack the Bishop of Basle - 46 
1273. Rudolph elected Emperor ; apparent Change in his Cha- 



racter - - - - - - 47 

1281—1285. His Feud with Savoy - - - - - 47 

1288. His Feud with Berne - - - - 48 

1291. His Death; State of the Empire; Expenses and Re- 



venues of the Nobles ; Acquisitions made by the 
Monasteries ; regular Trade of Robbery driven by 
some of the Nobility; Oppression of the Class of 
Bondsmen ; Advance of Civilisation in Towns ; Poetry 
of the Minnesingers - - - 48 

CHAP. V. 

MRX OF HELVETIC EMANCIPATION. 

Albert of Hapsburg ; his hard and rapacious Character ; 
he resolves to succeed to all the Honours of Rudolph ; 
disappointed in his first Hope of Succession to the 
Empire ; shortly afterwards raised to the imperial 
Throne illegally - _ - - 52 

Aims at erecting a Dukedom in Helvetia ; invites the 
Forest Cantons to accept the Protection of Austria ; 
their Answer; their Demand for imperial Commis- 
missaries, or Land-vogts ; insidious Compliance of 
Albert - - - - 53 

Tyranny of Gessler and Berenger - - - 54 

Oath of Rutli - - 55 

William Tell - - - - - 56 

Death of Gessler - - - - 57 

Capture of Rotzberg and Sarnen - - 57 

League of the three Forest Cantons - - 58 

Death of Albert of Hapsburg - . - 59 

Cruel Revenge taken for his Murder by Agnes, Queen 

of Hungary, his Daughter - - - - 6*0 
Recognition of Swiss Freedom by the Emperor Henry 

VII. - - - - 60 

First Invasion of Switzerland by Leopold, Duke of 

Austria - - - - 61 

Battle of Morgarten » „ - 63 

Perpetual Confederacy of the Forest Cantons ; its Cha- 
racter of noble Inoffensiveness - - - 64 
Six Years' Truce with Austria - - - 65 



1291. 



1298. 



12P8— 1308. 
1307. 



1308. 



1309. 



1315. 



1318. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. Xi 

A. D. Page 
1332. Admission of Lucerne to the Confederacy - - 67 

1308—1334. State of Industry, Commerce, and Religion; practical 

Proofs of Independence in Spiritual Matters - - 68 



CHAP. VI. 

FROM THE REVOLUTION OF ZURICH TO THE LEAGUE WITH 
APPENZELL. 

Situation of Zurich ; Character of the Burghers ; Form 
of Government - - - - 69 

1335. Rudolph Brun, a skilful popular Leader - - 71 

Excites a revolutionary Movement; elected Burgo- 
master for Life - _ - 73 

1350. Frustrates a Conspiracy of the Nobles - - 74 

1351. Applies for Aid to the Forest Cantons against Duke Al- 

bert of Austria - _ . 74. 

The latter besieges Zurich; is compelled to raise the 
Siege - - - - 75 

1353. League of the Eight original Towns and Lands of the 

Confederacy - _ _ - 76 

1356. Peace of Thorberg. . - .79 

Character of Rudolph Brun ; his Aptitude for the Part 
of a Demagogue ; his treacherous Compact with Aus- 
tria; his Government on the whole beneficial - 79 





Town of Berne ; distinguished for an active and ambi- 






tious Spirit ; obnoxious to the bordering Nobility 


80 


1338. 


Attacked by the combined Force of the Nobles and the 






Emperor - - - - 


81 


1339. 


Battle of Laupen ; Berne's Plans of Aggrandisement - 


82 


1349. 


Great Plague, depicted by Boccaccio ; attributed to Di- 
vine Wrath ; Persecution of the Jews ; Formation of 
a Brotherhood of Flagellants ; Debauchery occasioned 






by the Pestilence - - - . - 


84 


1360. 


Tragical Fate of Erlach 


86 


1370. 


The Pfaffenbrief, a remarkable Decree for the Control 
of Ecclesiastical Pretensions ; Decline of the Nobility 






and Clergy 


87 


1365-1375. 


Mode of conducting War by Condottieri ; Arnold of Cer- 






vola ; Ingelram De Coucy . - 


89 


1382. 


Berne and Soleure defeat the Count of Kyburg 


92 


1386. 


Battle of Sempach ; Arnold of Winkelried 


94 


1387. 


The Bad Peace - 


95 


1388. 


Unexpected Austrian Inroad ; Battle of Naefels ; singular 






Celebration of its Anniversary 


96 


1401. 


The Men of Appenzell revolt from the Abbot of St. Gall 


99 


1403. 


Are reinforced by the Schwytzers - 


100 


1405. 


Engage an Austrian Army at the Stoss and at the Wolfs- 






hald - - 


101 



xii 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



A. D. Page 
1408. Defeated at Bregenz - - - 102 

1411. Received as Allies of the Confederacy - -103 

1412. Renewal of the Twenty Years' Peace with Austria ; that 

Power had at length ceased to assert Predominance in 
Switzerland - - 104 

CHAP. VII. 

FROM THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE TO THE BATTLE OF 
ARBEDO. 

State of the Confederation ; general Forgetfulness of the 
Principles on which it was founded - - 105 

State of the Church, — Flagellants, Beghards, and Be- 
guines ; great Schism of the West - - 106 

1414—1418. Council of Constance - - - 107 

1415. Flight of Pope John ; Outlawry of Frederick Duke of 

Austria - 107 

Conquests of the Confederates - - - 108 

Erection of free Bailiwicks - - 109 

Capture and Deposition of Pope John - - 110 

1418. Sudden Dissolution of the Council of Constance, leaving 
unsettled all the important Questions which had formed 
the principal Motives for its Meeting - - 110 

Cardinal Poggio ; amusing Description left by him of 
the Festivities attending the Council of Constance; 
Appearance of a Swarm of unknown Strangers, after- 
wards called Zingari, Zigeuner, or Gipsies - 111 

The Mazze, a curious popular Ceremony, and Prelude to 
the Commencement of Hostilities - . 112 

1422. Feud of Uri and Unterwalden with Philip Visconti, Duke 
of Milan ; March of the Swiss on Bellinzona ; Battle 
of Arbedo - - - - 114 

CHAP. VIII. 

WAR OF THE CONFEDERATES WITH ZURICH. 

1436. Inheritance of Frederick Count of Toggenburg -117 

1437. Disputes of Schwytz and Glarus with Zurich - -118 
1440. Feud of several Cantons with Zurich - -119 

1442. League of Zurich with Austria - - 121 

1443. All the Confederates against Zurich - - 122 
The Rotten Peace ; Renewal of the War - - 122 

1444. Dauphin of France attacks Basle at the head of a Body 

of Armagnacs ; Battle of St. Jacob on the Birs - 123 
Dauphin offers to mediate Peace between Zurich and 
the Confederates - 124 

1400—1450. Intellectual Culture in the Fifteenth Century ; Schools ; 

Decline of Poetry - - - 125 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



xiii 



A. D. Page 
Felix Hammerlin, or Malleolus ; his Acquirements deem- 
ed supernatural j his Opinions on the Practice of 
Magic - - . 125 

1460. Instances of popular Superstition - - - 126 



CHAP. IX. 

FROM THE FIRST ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE TO THE DEATH OF 
CHARLES THE BOLD OF BURGUNDY. — THE SWISS COME 
FORWARD CONSPICUOUSLY ON THE THEATRE OF EUROPE. 

1453. First Alliance of Switzerland with France - . 130 

1467. Louis XI. ; main Object of his Policy ; Rivalship with 

Charles, Duke of Burgundy - - - 131 

1474. Character of the latter; he takes Possession of Alsace, 

on Pretext of a Mortgage from Sigismund Duke of 

Austria - - - - 133 

Appoints Peter von Hagenbach to be Governor of the 

mortgaged Lands - 134 

Conduct of Hagenbach complained of by the Swiss; 

Charles treats their Envoys with Discourtesy . 135 

Offensive and defensive Alliance of Switzerland with 

France and Austria - 137 

Fate of Hagenbach - - - - 140 

Berne declares War against Burgundy * - 141 

The Confederates are shamefully deserted by their royal 

Allies - - - - -142 

1476. Charles conquers Lorraine, and invades Switzerland; 

Description of his Camp by Philip de Comines - 143 

Siege of Granson ; cold-blooded wholesale Slaughter of 

the Garrison - - 144 

Battle of Granson ; Spoil of the Duke's Camp; Revenge 

for the recent Massacre of Granson - -145 

Exultation of Louis XL ; Swiss justly indignant at his 
Conduct; he lavishes Assurances and Presents on 
them ; at the same Time, sends a Message of Condolence 
to the Duke of Burgundy - - - 148 

Charles re-appears in the Field - - 148 

Attacks Morat by Storm - - - - 149 

Battle of Morat - - - - 150 

1477. Last Effort of Burgundy ; Charles applies in vain for As- 

sistance to his Subjects in the Netherlands and in Bur- 
gundy - - 151 
Battle of Nancy; Death of Charles; itsConsequences; Lou- 
is attempts to appropriate the rich Succession of Bur- 
gundy ; demands for the Dauphin the Hand of Charles's 
Daughter, who is married to the Archduke Maximi- 
lian; takes Possession of Upper Burgundy, which he 



XIV 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



A. D. Page 
is afterwards compelled to cede ; cajoles the Helvetic 
Body ; retains Numbers of Swiss in his Service, and 
gluts with Gold the newly awakened Avarice of the 
Confederates - - - 151 



CHAP. X. 

iERA OF THE COVENANT OF STANTZ. OBJECTS AND PRO- 
VISIONS OF THAT INSTRUMENT. GENERAL VIEW OF THE 

STATE OF THE CONFEDERACY IN WAR AND PEACE. FREE 

AND FAMILIAR INTERCOURSE OF ALL RANKS. AMUSE- 
MENTS IN THE INTERVALS OF WARFARE. 



1477. Effects of the Burguiidian War in Switzerland ; Swiss 

Valour becomes a marketable Commodity ; the sudden 
Diffusion of Wealth engenders Crime and Immo- 
rality ; enormous Number of capital Executions - 153 

1478. Feud of Uri with Milan ; Battle of Giornico - 155 

1480. Claims of Soleure and Freyburg to be admitted into the 

League; Resistance to the Measure on the Part of 
the Rural Cantons - - - 156 

1417 — 1487. Nicolas of the Flue ; his devout Character and In- 
fluence - - - 156 

1481. Covenant of Stantz the first Occasion on which the Swiss 157 

fixed and defined their Federal Constitution - - 158 
Survey of the State of the Helvetic Body up to this 

Period; original Idea of the Confederation -159 
Simple Procedure in all judicial Matters ; Use of Tor- 
ture; cruel Modes of Punishment - - 159 
Frequent Collision of military and civil Powers - 161 

Occupations, and free and familiar Intercourse of all 

Ranks - - - - 162 

Festive Scenes at Baden in Aargau - - 164 

Terror inspired by the Ravages of the Plague - - 164 



CHAP. XL' 

LEAGUE OF ST. GEORGE ESTABLISHED IN THE EMPIRE, OSTEN- 
SIBLY TO CHECK ABUSE OF THE RIGHT OF SELF-DEFENCE. 

ITS UNAVOWED AND SECRET OBJECTS. ADHESION TO IT 

DECLINED BY THE CONFEDERATES. THE SWABIAN WAR 

RESULTS FROM THEIR REFUSAL. 

1489. Administration, Arrest, and Death of Hans Waldmann 
at Zurich ; Compromise between the Burghers and 
Peasantry in that Canton - - 166 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



XV 



A. D. Page 
1495. Petticoat League - - - 167 

Diet at Worms - - - - 168 

French Intrigues and Influence on the Helvetic Body - 168 
Carelessness of the latter with regard to Papal Bulls, 
and the Person of the Emperor - - 169 

1499. Altercations with the Imperialists; opprobrious Nick- 
names showered on the Swiss - - 170 
Commencement of the Swabian War ; Successes of the 

Swiss and Grisons - - - 171 

Emperor Maximilian enters the Engadines ; retreats 

into the Tyrol * - - 171 

Treaty of Peace - - - - 172 

1501. Reception of Basle and SchafFhausen into Alliance with 

the Confederacy - - ~ -172 



CHAP. XII. 

COMPETITION OF THE GREAT EUROPEAN TOWERS FOR THE 
ALLIANCE OF THE CONFEDERATES, AND THE ASSISTANCE OF 
THEIR TROOPS. SYSTEM OF FOREIGN ENLISTMENTS INTRO- 
DUCED, AND PLAUSIBLY JUSTIFIED. ITALIAN EXPEDITIONS. 

PERPETUAL PEACE WITH FRANCE. 

Corruption of the Helvetic Body - - 174 

1499. Louis XII. ; Ludovico Sforza - - -174 
French Occupation of Milan - . 177 
Claims of the Confederates on the Milanese and Bellin- 

zona - - - - 177 

1500. Enlistments of Sforza in Switzerland; of Louis -178 
Sforza betrayed by the Swiss, and imprisoned by the 

French for Life - - . 179 

1505. Treaty of the Emperor with the Confederacy ; broken 

off by French Intrigues - . 181 

1508. League of Cambray - . ,182 

1509. Battle of Agnadello ; Character of Schinner, bishop of 

Sion . - - - 183 

Alliance against the Pope between the French King and 
the Emperor - . ig5 

1512. Holy League against France - - - 186 
Gaston de Foix - - . 186 
French expelled from Italy by the Pope, Swiss, and Ve- 
netians . . 187 

1513. Duchy of Milan reconquered by the French, who are 

defeated by the Swiss at Novara - . - 190 

Swiss Expedition to Dijon; Peace with France; of 
brief Duration - v 192 

1515. Francis L invades Piedmont ; Battle of Marignano ; 

perpetual Peace betwixt France and Switzerland - 194 



XVi CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 

CHAP. XIII. 

FALL OF THE SWISS FROM MILITARY PRE-EMINENCE ASCRIB- 
ABLE TO THE CHANGES IN THE ART OF MODERN WARFARE. 

PREDISPOSING CAUSES, AND FIRST MOVEMENTS OF THE 

REFORMATION. 

Page 

General Results of the Italian Expeditions - - 197 

Corruptions of the Catholic Church ; Case of Jetzer - 200 
Leo X. extends the Sale of Indulgences, and sends an 

Apostolical Commissioner into Switzerland - 204 

Ulrich Zwingli opposes himself to the Traffic in In- 
dulgences ; appointed public Preacher at Zurich - 205 
Resolution against Courtisans - - 206 

First Disputation of Baden ; Council of Zurich ; its Re- 
forms opposed by the other Cantons - - -207 
Anabaptists and various other Sectaries - - 209 

Levies of Troops in Switzerland by Francis L - - 211 
Siege of Pavia ; Battle of Pavia ; the Capture of the 

French King excites Consternation in Switzerland - 212 
Cause of Reform espoused by Berne - - 213 

Thomas Murner ; Anabaptist Excesses - - 213 

Embitterment of religious Parties ; Christian League ; 
Attack on Cappel ; Death of Zwingli - - 214 

CHAP. XIV. 

STRUGGLES AND VICISSITUDES OF GOVERNMENT IN GENEVA. ITS 

ALLIANCES WITH THE CANTONS, A1SD EXTORTED INDEPEND- 
ENCE OF SAVOY. MORAL AND SOCIAL CHANGES PRODUCED 

BY THE INFLUENCE OF CALVIN. 

Town of Geneva ; its early History ; Counts of Gene- 

vois, and Bishops - 216 

Oppressed by the Dukes of Savoy j Mamelukes ; Cruel- 
ties exercised on the Burghers - - 217 
1519. The latter court the Alliance of Freyburg - - 217 
Duke Charles of Savoy enters the Town - - 217 
Execution of Berthelier - - 217 
1526. Alliance of Berne and Freyburg with Geneva ; im- 
potent Resentment of the Duke - - 2J9 
1526. Spoon League - - - - 220 
Treaty of St. Julian - - - 220 
1536. Zeal of Farel and others ; Abolition of Catholicism - 221 
Equivocal Deportment of Duke Charles - - 221 
Conquest of the Vaud by Berne ; Co-burghership be- 
twixt Berne and Geneva ~ - 222 



A. D. 

1506. 
1509. 

1519. 

1523. 
1524. 
1525. 
1528. 
1529—1531. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. Xvii 

A. D. Page 
1509 — 1561. Character, Works, and Influence of Calvin; general 

Effect of the Reformation in Switzerland - -223 

1579. Council of Trent - - - - 229 

Borromean League - - - - 230 

1582. Calendar Controversy - - - 231 



CHAP. XV. 

FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR TO 
THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

Description of the Grisons ; early History ; Forms of Go. 

vernment ; Influence of particular Families - - 234 
Spanish and French Parties - 238 

Popular Tumults, fomented by the Clergy ; Massacre of 

Protestants in the Valteline - . 239 

Fruitless Negotiations with Spain and Austria ; Subju- 
gation of the Grisons by the latter Power - - 241 
Recovery of their Freedom and Independence - - 242 
State of Religious Parties in Switzerland - - 243 

Thirty Years' War ; Disunion in the Helvetic Body ; In- 
roads of foreign Armies ; Intrigues of foreign Am- ' 
bassadors - - 243 

Peace of Westphalia j tardy Recognition of Swiss Inde- 
pendence - - - 245 
Foreign Relations - . 246 
Fragmentary State of Knowledge in Switzerland - 247 

CHAP. XVI. 

INSURRECTION OF THE PEASANTRY IN BERNE, LUCERNE, 
SOLEURE, AND BASLE. 

1653. Causes of Discontent ; Oppression of the Free Baili- 



wicks ; Disputes about the Currency, &c. - - 244 

Popular Nickname of Soft and Hard Ones - - 247 

Employment of armed Force against the Insurgents - 249 

1654. Suppression of the Insurrection - - 251 



Foreign Policy of the two religious Parties; extraordi- 
nary Hoi ours paid by the English Government uwder 
Cromwell to the Envoys of the Protestant Cantons ; 
their successful Intercession for the persecuted Wal- 
denses - - . - 252 

CHAP, XVIL 

RELIGIOUS WAR, AND WAR OF TOGGENBURG. 

1656. Religious War; its Origin; mutual Distrust of Pro- 
testants and Catholics . - 253 



1525. 
1620. 

1623. 

1639. 

1629—1648. 



1648. 



xviii 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



A. D. Page 
Battle of Villmergen - - -259 

1667. Usurpations of the Abbot of St. Gall over the People of 

Toggenburg - - 261 

1703. Long Altercations of Schwytz, Glarus, and Berne - 262 
1712. War of Toggenburg j Flight of Abbot Leodegar - 265 

Toggenburgers aim at Independence, which is refused 

them - - - - 265 

Surprisal of the Bernese Troops by Ackermann of Un- 

terwalden - - - - 266 

Second Action at Villmergen - - 266 

Peace of Aarau - - 267 

1718. Hostile Interference of the Pope and his Nuncio; Re- 
prisals of the Helvetic Body - - 267 



CHAP. XVIII. 

COURSE OF EVENTS DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

1702. Foreign Relations and Policy of the Helvetic Body at 
the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century ; Conduct 



of Du Luc, the French Ambassador - - 268 

1710—1714. Case of Thomas Massner of Coire - 270 

1702 — 1705. Jesuit Missions in Switzerland - - 271 

1745. Conspiracy of Henzi at Berne ... 273 

1781. Insurrection at Freyburg under Chenaux - - 276 

1777. New Alliance with France - - 278 



CHAP. XIX. 

DISTURBANCES AT GENEVA AND IN NEUFCHATEL. 

1707 — 1714. Arrogance of " Patricians" at Geneva; popular 
1734. Ebullitions against them ; defensive Measures of the 

Council baffled by the Populace - 279 

1738. Edict of 1738 - - - - 282 

1762. Burning of Rousseau's " Emile " and " Contrat Social;" 

Disputes of Representative and Negative Parties - 282 
1768. Armed Intervention of France, Zurich, and Berne - 283 

1781. Intrigues of the French and Negatives; Revolt of the 

Representatives, who erect a new democratic Con- 
stitution - - - - 284 

1782. Fresh Interference of France, Berne, and Savoy ; Entrance 

and Occupation of Geneva by their Troops ; Regle- 
mentofl782; its Consequences - - 285 

1748. Discontents in Neufchatel . - - 286 

1768. Death of Gaudot; magnanimous Conduct of Fre- 
derick II. of Prussia - - - 288 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



xix 



CHAP. XX. 

GENERAL VIEW OF THE STATE OF SWITZERLAND SHORTLY 
BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

A. D. Page 

Democratical Cantons - - - 283 

Aristocratical Cantons; Berne; State of the Pays de 

Valid ; Neglect of Education at Berne ; exterior or 

Shadow State - - 284 

Lucerne ; Helvetic Society - - 286 

Aristo-democratical Governments - - 287 

Free Bailiwicks - - - - 289 

Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce - - 289 

Arts and Sciences . - 290 

Military Department - - 291 



CHAP. XXL 

FROM THE FIRST YEARS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE 
PEACE OF AMIENS. 



1789. 
1794. 

1796. 
1797. 



1798. 



1798. 



1799. 



1801. 
1802. 



304 
305 

306 



- 308 



First Effects of the French Revolution in Switzerland - 298 
Imitation of its Horrors at Geneva - - 301 

Policy of the French Directory ... 302 

Cisalpine Republic - - 503 

Insurrection of the Peasantry in Basle ; Diffusion of the 

Spirit of Revolt - - 

Insolence of Commissary Men gaud 
French Troops under Menard enter the Vaud, which 

declares itself independent - - 
Degrading Application to Men gaud on the Part of the 

Bernese Government 
Insolent Ultimatum of Brune; unwonted Vigour of 

Berne - - - - 309 

Inconsistency of the Bernese Government ; Commence- 
ment of Hostilities; partial Successes of the Swiss; 
Capitulation of Berne ; Murder of General Erlach by 
his own Troops - - 

The French proclaim a Constitution Unitaire, levy large 
Contributions on the Towns, and appropriate the Trea- 
sures amassed at Berne and in other Places 
Struggle and Subjection of the Forest Cantons; Fall of 

the old Helvetic League ; Anarchy and Tyranny -512 
Renewal of War between France and Austria; Seat of 
War transferred to Switzerland ; desolating Inroads 
of the French, Austrians, and Russians - - 315 

Mystical and Fanatical Notions propagated at this Crisis 517 
Peace of Amiens ; Withdrawal of French Troops from 
Switzerland ; renewed Scene of Confusion ; Inter- 
ference of Napoleon ; Acquiescence in his offered - 
Mediation - - - - 318 



510 



- 512 



XX 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



CHAP. XXII. 

FROM THE ACT OF MEDIATION TO THE PRESENT TIME. 

A. D. Page 

1803. Reception of Swiss Delegates at Paris ; general Expres- 
sions of Napoleon with regard to Switzerland; Act 
of Mediation ; its beneficent Effects - - 322 

1813. Fall of Napoleon - - - - 325 

Measures of the Cantonal Governments; Declaration 

of Neutrality by the Swiss Diet - - - 326 

Hopes of the Partisans of the old Regime abolished 

in 1798 - - - - - 326 

Proclamation of Prince Schwartzenberg ; Austrian In- 
vasion of Switzerland - - 327 
Abolition of the Act of Mediation - - - 328 
1815. Congress of Vienna; diplomatic Delays; Effect pro- 
duced by the landing of Napoleon from Elba - 330 
(20th of March) Recognition of the Twenty-two Cantons; 
their Constitutions remodelled - - 330 
1817. Switzerland a Party to the Holy Alliance; foreign 

Police ; Surveillance of the Press - - 331 

1815—1830. Revival of the Jesuits ; Education ; Pestalozzi ; Fel- 

ienberg ; Revolution of 1830 ; Conclusion - - 334 



HISTORY 

OF 

SWITZERLAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

ANCIENT HELVETIANS. ROMANS AND BARBARIANS. 

B.C. 110.— A. D. 500. 

ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. ANCIENT INHABITANTS. ALLY 

THEMSELVES WITH THE CIMBRI AND TEUTONES. — DEFEAT A 

ROMAN ARMY. INVADE GAUL. REPULSED BY JULIUS CJESAR. 

ROMAN CONQUEST OF RHiETIA. — HELVETIC INSURRECTION 

UNDER VITELLIUS. QUELLED BY AULUS C^ECINA. JULIA 

ALPINULA. HELVETIA SUBJECT TO ROME. BARBARIAN 

INROADS ON THE EMPIRE. SETTLEMENTS OF BURGUNDIANS, 

ALEMANNI, FRANKS, AND OSTROGOTHS. — DISTINCTIVE 
FEATURES OF FRENCH AND GERMAN SWITZERLAND. 

A tract, however outwardly devoid of those advan- 
tages which are commonly viewed as the chief, if not 
sole elements of national greatness, will always take up 
a space in human history more extended than its visible 
strength and surface seem to claim for it, where c: a 
petty population, without allies, munitions, or money, 
without state-craft, without military skill, save that 
which nature taught, could maintain itself in posses- 
sion of its primitive rights and usages through all the 
European revolutions of five centuries." * 

The land of which the history lies before us has 
been said to fight the battles of its inhabitants, and by 

* Mutter. 
B 



2 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



the very structure of the ground to screen them from 
subjection, as well as to preclude them from conquest. 
Its main features still remain the same as Strabo has 
described them. — "Through the whole extent of the 
Alpine chains," says that exact geographer, " there are 
hilly platforms capable of cultivation — there are also 
highly cultivated valleys ; yet the greater part of 
the hill country, especially in its highest recesses, 
is unfruitful, on account of the snow, and of the 
severity of the climate. As its rude inhabitants felt the 
want of all the productions of agriculture, they some- 
times showed forbearance towards the cultivators of the 
plains, in order to obtain from them the necessaries of 
life. For these they exchanged resin, pitch, pine- wood, 
honey, and cheese, of which they had enough and to 
spare/'* 

Helvetia is placed nearly at the centre of Europe, and 
may be considered (geographically speaking) as a corner 
of Germany. The ancient name of the country was 
derived from its first known inhabitants ; the modern, 
from the canton of Schwytz, the cradle of Swiss inde- 
pendence. It is bounded on the north by the lake of 
Constance and the duchy of Baden, on the east by the 
Tyrol, on the west by France, and on the south by 
Italy. No other division of our quarter of the globe 
presents a panorama so astonishing, — no other exhibits 
so surprising a diversity of landscapes, ever interest- 
ing, and ever new in their features. Nowhere such 
extremes meet as in Switzerland ; where eternal Alpine 
snows are fringed by green and luxuriant pastures, — 
where enormous icebergs rise above valleys breathing 
aromatic scents, and blest with an Italian spring, 
— and where the temperatures of each zone alternately 
reign within two or three leagues. But not alone the 
contrasts of nature claim our attention in these regions. 
Those of man are equally remarkable ; from the life of 
the Alpine shepherd, who preserves in his lonely valley 
the simplicity of primitive times, to that of the inhabitant 

* Strab. Geogr. iv. 6. 



ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 



3 



of towns, refined and softened by the manners and the 
language of France. 

East and west, from the lofty central point of the 
St. Gothard, extend the Alps, in the form of a mighty 
crescent, embracing the north of Italy, and on every 
side environed by tremendous clefts and caverns,, which 
ensnare the incautious traveller with a veil of greyish 
snow. Here is the horrid birthplace of the glacier and 
the avalanche ; but hence, too, streams are welled forth 
by the genial warmth of nature to supply romantic 
lakes, and spread fertility over the face of the soil. 
Four principal rivers flow through Switzerland ; the 
Rhine, the Rhone, the Ticino or Tessin, and the Inn. 
All of them originate in the high line of the Alps, and 
indicate by their course the main declivities of the 
country. The northern slope is watered by the Reuss 
and the Aar, which meet in the Rhine ; the southern 
by the Ticino, the north-eastern by the Inn, and the 
south-western by the Rhone. 

It would be useless to enquire how long the land was 
overshadowed by the foliage of impenetrable forests, and 
re-echoed only the roar of the bear and ure-ox, and 
the scream of the lammergeyer ; or who were the first 
human stragglers, urged by love of freedom or solitude 
to seek a scanty subsistence there by huntings fishing, 
or pasturage. The condition of the tracts between the 
Rhine, the Rhone, and the Jura, remains involved in 
almost entire obscurity till the appearance of the Hel- 
vetians, a race of Gallic Celts, whom some unknown 
accident had guided from the borders of the Rhine and 
the Main to those of the lake of Geneva. The toilsome 
cultivation of these regions, while it left but little time 
for martial enterprise, conduced with the pure moun- 
tain breezes to form a stout and hardy people, which 
divided itself into four districts, then, as in later ages, 
connected with each other by the feeble bands of a 
federal union, 

It is probable that the Gallo-Celtic inhabitants of 
these regions, bordering so closely upon Italy, took part 

b 2 



4 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. B.C. 111. 



in the great inroads of the Gauls on that country. But 
their first ascertained military enterprise was conducted 
in alliance with the Cimbri and Teutones, who roamed 
from unknown regions in the east and the north ; ex- 
tended their conquests and ravages along the banks of 
the Rhine, and even struck the already powerful Roman 
commonwealth with terror. Whether few or many Hel- 
vetian tribes accompanied that expedition is a point which 
cannot now be determined. What is evident, however, 
is, that each of these tribes had full liberty of waging 
wars, and allying itself with foreigners. Thus, the 
Tigurini, for example, marched with the Cimbrians 
nearly to the mouths of the Rhone. But when a Roman 
army, under the consul Lucius Cassius, threatened their 
rear, they suddenly wheeled round, apprehensive of 
being cut off from their homes; and, led by their young 
general Diviko, gave the Romans a complete defeat on 
the banks of the Leman lake (lake of Geneva). The 
consul, and his lieutenant Piso, were left dead on the 
field. The conquerors only permitted the retreat of 
the survivors after they had given hostages, and marched 
under the yoke. 

Long after Diviko' s excursion with the northern 
marauders, recollections of the fat pastures and rich do- 
mains of Gaul, of which a glimpse had been caught in 
the course of that excursion, furnished all who had, and 
many who had not, shared the adventure, with a theme 
for the most highly coloured description. There the 
vine and olive ripened under a warmer heaven, and the 
winter's snows were all but unknown. The effect of 
these reminiscences was enhanced by the accounts 
brought by travellers from the left bank of the Rhine, 
which produced their natural workings on a rude and 
simple people, — a people highly irritable, daring, and 
self-confident, — with whom prudent deliberation passed 
for cowardice, and in whom successful excursions had 
encouraged the propensity to predatory warfare. Their 
pastoral habits adapted them for any wandering enter- 
prise : those distinctions of rank which are described 



B. C. 60. HELVETIAN INROAD ON GAUL. 



5 



as having existed among them marked out a military- 
order. The priestly power is apter to take root among 
the more pacific cultivators of plains. 

A leader of the former class stood forth among the 
Helvetians in the person of Orgetorix, — a man of rank 
and ambition. In peace, he could not gratify his appetite 
for absolute power, and therefore built his hopes upon 
warfare. Having secretly gained a number of adherents, 
he came forward in a public assembly., and artfully per- 
suaded the people to quit their rocky fastnesses, which 
barely furnished food for themselves and their cattle, and 
to march with him into the fair and fruitful territories 
of Gaul, where little resistance was to be feared from 
the effeminate inhabitants. The orator succeeded in ex- 
citing the rude appetites and passions of his hearers. 
His proposal was received with acclamations. It was re- 
solved to break up and emigrate, after the lapse of three 
years, with their wives and families, cattle and pos- 
sessions. The interval was to be used in making the 
needful preparations. Before, however, the year of the 
expedition had arrived, the despotic designs of Orgetorix 
were discovered ; and he was reduced to lay violent 
hands on himself, in order to escape death at the 
stake. 

The resolution of the Helvetians must have been 
based on deep conviction, since it suffered no alteration 
from so ominous an outset. That retreat might hence- 
forth cease to be thought of, they burned their habit- 
ations, and even their corn, reserving only three months' 
provisions. Moreover, they succeeded in persuading 
several neighbouring tribes to burn their towns and vil- 
lages in like manner, and accompany them. Three hun- 
dred and sixty-eight thousand souls, of whom ninety- 
two thousand were able-bodied warriors, are computed 
to have marched out on this Gallic expedition. 

The Roman province of Gaul was, at the point of time 
before us, under the government of Julius Caesar, — al- 
ready no less eminent as a military leader than he became, 
a few years afterwards, as a statesman. He was, at this 

b 3 



6 



EISTOHY OF SWITZERLAND. 



B. C. 57 



moment, aiming at the same power over his countrymen 
as that to which Orgetcrix had aspired among the Hel- 
vetians ; but, unlike the latter, the Romans had become 
ripe for subjection. Qrgetorix, besides^ was no Caesar. 
Without granting the passage desired by the Helvetians 
through his province, he found means to put them off, 
to gain time and collect reinforcements. He followed, 
with his army, their march through the lands of the 
Sequani and iEdui (inhabitants of the territory after- 
wards the Franche-Comte and duchy of Burgundy), 
alleging as his reasons the danger caused to the province 
under his charge by the descent of so warlike and enter- 
prising a people, and the petitions for aid addressed to 
him by the iEdui, who were annoyed by the Helvetian 
inroad. In fact, however, any and every pretext for in- 
tervening in the affairs of Gaul was welcome to him. 
He made no demonstration of hostility till the main in- 
vading body had already crossed the Araris (Saone), 
when, falling on theTigurini, who alone had remained 
on the left bank, he cut most of them to pieces, and dis- 
persed the rest. # 

Notwithstanding this unlooked-for catastrophe, the 
Helvetians did not yet renounce the main scope of their 
enterprise, and made overtures to treat with Caesar. Old 
Diviko was commissioned for this purpose, who did not 
forget in recent defeat his former superiority. No treaty 
could be brought to a conclusion, and Csesar followed the 
march of the invaders a fortnight longer. At length, 
after a desperate and long-sustained conflict in the 
neighbourhood of Bibracte (Autun), the superiority of 
the Roman arms and discipline decided the day against 
the stubborn courage of the Helvetians. Their strength 
and spirit now completely broken, they submitted. 

The terms imposed by Caesar on the vanquished 
invaders were, to return into their desolated country, 
and rebuild their wilfully ruined habitations. For their 
immediate provision, he supplied grain through the Alio- 
broges (inhabitants of the territory extending from Ge- 

Cassar, De Bel]. GalL i. 29. 



B.C. 15. ROMAN CONQUEST OF RELETIA. 



7 



neva to Grenoble, and from Vienne on the Rhone to the 
Alps in Savoy) ; and promised for the future that they 
should live under their own laws, under the specious de- 
nomination of allies of the Roman people. In order, 
however, to watch and overawe these new allies, a for- 
tress was built at Noviodunum (Nyon), near the lake of 
Geneva. Several other garrisons were stationed through- 
out the country. 

The Rhaetians only, screened by their lakes and ice- 
bergs, might for a moment yet esteem themselves invin- 
cible, and form leagues with the natural allies of their 
tribe, who were scattered along the course of the Inn, 
throughout the vales of the present Tyrol, and in the 
plains included since in the circle of Swabia. They 
pursued a wild and reckless mode of life ; plundered 
travellers, or broke suddenly forth in numerous hordes 
through their mountain-passes, and fell by surprise on 
the neighbouring towns of Italy. 

Even during Caesar's Gallic proconsulate, there are 
traces of the Roman arms being turned against the 
Rhaetians ; and so soon as Augustus had firmly secured 
his dominion over the empire, he endeavoured to confine 
within more narrow bounds, on the southward, a people 
whose incursions had by this time become formidable 
even to the plains of Upper Italy. Soon afterwards he 
sent against the Rhaetians his two step-sons, — Drusus 
from Italy, Tiberius through Gaul, and by the lake of 
Constance. Only after an obstinate struggle, renewed 
with repeated efforts, were these vigorous assertors of 
their country's independence compelled beneath the 
universal empire of Rome. (15 b. c.) A part of their 
youth were afterwards embodied in the legions, and the 
subject land was occupied by permanent encampments. 

W e have seen that the Helvetians were at first flat- 
tered by the Romans with the title of allies, — a title of 
precarious value at any time, and which, in the present 
case, seems only to have been given till the land should 
be secured in subjection. This is rendered still more 
evident by the circumstance of an equestrian colony ^ even 

B 4 , 



8 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. B. C, 



in Caesar's time, having been founded at Noviodunum 
(Colonia Julia Equestris). Under Augustus,, Munatius 
Plancus founded the Colonia Augusta Rauracorum ; 
and the settlement at Vindonissa (Windisch) cannot 
be of much later date. The franchises conceded 
to these settlements, the grants of land and subsidies 
which (in order to encourage such establishments, 
and build them up as outworks of the Roman do- 
minion,) were conferred upon the Roman soldiers and 
colonists who chose them for a permanent residence, 
prove nothing with regard to the general welfare of the 
country, and the condition of its primitive inhabitants. 
They, indeed, retained in part their simple forms of 
polity, which soon, however, became merged in the cen- 
tral administration ; and even so early as the reign of 
Augustus, heavy poll and land taxes, hitherto unknown, 
were introduced in these regions. 

When the weaker come in collision with the stronger, 
one precipitate step may easily plunge them in ruin. 
This was experienced by the Helvetians, on the oc- 
casion of the murder of the emperor Galba (a. d. 69) ; 
an event of which either the tidings did not imme- 
diately reach them, or found them disinclined to ac- 
knowledge Vitellius, — the candidate for the purple 
against Otho. This prevalent indisposition, or igno- 
rance, was not at all corrected by the conduct of the 
twenty-first legion (surnamed rapax) * at Vindonissa, 
which, with rapacity suiting its surname, seized the pay 
set apart by the Helvetians for the garrison of the 
castle. The latter retaliated, by intercepting letters be- 
tween the German and Pannonian armies, and by ar- 
resting a centurion with a company of soldiers. Their 
general, Aulus Caecina, who was marching from the 
Rhine with his unbridled bands to meet Otho in Italy, 
sacked and destroyed the bathing-place on the Limmat 
(now Baden), which had grown, during long peace, to 
the importance of a municipal town. He called out re- 
inforcements from Rhaetia, to fall upon the rear of the 

* Tacit Hist. xi. 43. 



A. D. 69. 



JULIA ALPINULA. 



9 



native insurgents. These, without practice in arms^ 
discipline, or tactics, were, in fact, without any of the 
conditions of success, and found themselves attacked by 
mountaineers like themselves, — -the FJisetians. Assailed 
in flank by the legions under Caecina ; in rear by the 
cohorts coming up from Rhaetia, as well as by the disci- 
plined youth of Rhaetia itself ; they suffered a severe defeat. 
Borne down by the Thracian cohort, pursued and 
tracked to every retreat by the light German and Rhaetian 
troops, many thousands were left dead upon the field, or 
made prisoners, and afterwards sold for slaves. 

When the news of the lost battle reached Aventicum, 
amazement and distress prevailed. The ambassadors_, 
who were instantly sent to appease the wrath of the con- 
queror, were received and addressed with harshness by 
Csecina. He demanded, first of all, the execution of 
the principal man in the nation, Julius Alpinus. He 
referred the people for mercy to the emperor, who alone 
had power to mitigate their well-deserved chastisement. 
When the ambassadors brought this answer back to 
Aventicum, through fear of Caecum' s wrath, no one dared 
to discuss the sentence. Julia Alpinula only, daughter 
of Julius Alpinus, and a priestess of the goddess Aventia, 
dared a filial effort for the rescue of her parent. She has- 
tened to the embittered foe's encampment, threw herself at 
the general's feet, and., with all the persuasive powers of 
youth and innocence, entreated for the life of her father. 
Caecina ordered his instant execution. Fifteen hundred 
years since the occurrence, the following sepulchral in- 
scription was discovered in the ruins of Aventicum : — 
" Julia Alpinula hie jaceo; infelicis patris infelioc pinoles. 
Dece Aventice sacerdos, exorare patris necem non potui : 
male rnori in fatis illi erat. Vixi annos xxiii." 
(I lie here, Julia Alpinula; unhappy child of an unhappy 
parent. Priestess of the goddess Aventia, my prayers 
could not avert the death of my father : fate had decreed 
him a lamentable end. I lived twenty-three years.) 

The Helvetian envoys made their appearance before 
Vitellius,, anxious^ yet scarce hoping, to avert the last 



10 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



69. 



extremities. Audience at length being given, the 
infuriated soldiers brandished weapons of death be- 
fore their eyes, and demanded loudly the total ex- 
tirpation of a race which had laid presumptuous 
hands on Roman warriors. Vitellius himself knitted 
his heavy brows, and muttered menaces. The spokes- 
man of the Helvetians, Claudius Cossus, stood pale as 
death before him, offered no excuse of the facts, but 
only depicted, in the liveliest hues, the misery of his 
country, threw himself at the emperor's feet, and begged 
so irresistibly, that all hearts were affected, and the sol- 
diers themselves took part in supplicating mercy for 
Helvetia.* Thus his country was preserved by one 
man ; but instead of being, as hitherto, entitled the aily 
of Rome, was degraded into union with the province of 
Gaul. 

It, however, remains doubtful whether, even at this 
period, when the whole land was nominally subject to 
the Romans, a certain measure of freedom, in its wooded 
and rocky recesses at least, might not still have continued 
to exist, compatibly with a nominal allegiance, perhaps 
even with the payment of a tribute. The remains of Ro- 
man settlements, extending from the Albis to the Bernese 
Oberland, lead to the inference that a connected line 
of garrisons was kept up for security towards the in- 
terior of the country. Roman coins, &c, which have 
been found in the interior, and even in the higher parts 
of the mountains^ may have come there through the 
natives themselves. This may be conjectural ; but a 
matter of more certainty is, that Roman habiliments, 
manners, and usages, became diffused throughout the 
country, along with their attendant effeminacy, luxury, 
and moral corruption. The Latin language gradually 
encroached upon, and in some measure superseded, 
that of the country. Even in things of common use, 
and in agriculture, many Latin names, which have not 
been adopted into the formed and matured dialects of 
Germany, are to be met with at the present day in 

* Tacit, ibid. c. 7. et seq. 



211. 



HELVETIA SUBJECT TO ROME. 



11 



Switzerland.* All genuine nationality was extinguished, 
and the very name of Helvetia disappeared. The in- 
habitants became mere subjects. 

The government of Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, and the two 
Antonines, in almost its whole duration, may be reckon- 
ed among such blessings as Providence but sparingly 
vouchsafes to mankind. Under such rulers, bad ad- 
ministrators are rare, or, at all events, they are kept in 
check by wholesome apprehensions. Human industry 
penetrated the fastnesses of the mountains. The Alp- 
ine cows became an article of commerce; for though 
the breed was small and poor in flesh, it was capable of 
enduring labour, and afforded abundance of milk : the 
Alpine cheeses gained at that early period the renown 
which they retain to this day. Experiments were un- 
dertaken in agriculture — and the Falernian hills were 
rivalled by the vineyards of Rhaetia, The Helvetians 
paid peculiar veneration to the god of wine ; and pre- 
served his gifts, not as yet in wine cellars, but in wine 
casks. They worshipped also the sun, by the name of 
Belin, the invincible god ; and his sister Isis ? the 
moon ; the sylphs, their guardian angels ; and the 
shadowy powers, the dii manes. But the period must 
soon terminate in which individual qualities softened 
the workings of pure despotism and military dominion. 
The inseparable consequences of boundless prodigality, 
and consequent rapacity, on the part of the rulers, had 
made government a mere unpunished system of plunder. 
Admission to the rights of Roman citizenship, which^ 
under Caracalla, became easier than ever, had the effect 
of introducing Roman citizens into all situations hitherto 
filled by natives. Thus the latter came at length to be 
governed by functionaries, who acted upon wholly dis- 
tinct interests from theirs ; a grievance which rose 
to its highest pitch in the reign of Diocletian, who con- 
ferred upon the higher class of officers powers of pro- 
ceeding summarily, without calling assessors. 

* The following are examples, — Aren (for pflugen, to plough), Eolle 
(bulla, a bud), Furkel (furca, a pitchfork), &c. 



12 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



285. 



" Woe to the land/' exclaims an eloquent Swiss 
writer*, ''on whose judgment seats the stranger sits — at 
whose gates the stranger watches ! Woe to the land 
divided against itself, and relying on foreigners ! Woe 
to the people which gathers gold, but knows the use of 
steel no longer ! " 

Christianity, during this period, spread by degrees 
throughout Helvetia. Men who were abandoned as a 
prey to every variety of misery and oppression, must 
have found a system welcome and encouraging, which 
taught resignation and patience under suffering, w T hile 
it held out brighter hopes for the future ; which had its 
menaces for the haughty and tyrannical, and its com- 
forts for the lowly and wretched, and singled out the 
indigent and despised classes as the most especial ob- 
jects of divine grace and mercy. The original announce- 
ment of the new faith has been ascribed by the legends 
to a certain Beatus, so early as the first century ; in 
the third century, to Lucius, a Rhsetian ; at the 
close of the fourth, to the members of the so-called 
Theban legion. In like manner, the signatures of 
bishops or presbyters of churches, in the Valais, at Ge- 
neva, Coire, Aventicum, and elsewhere, are handed 
down to us, bearing date from the fourth century. 
These, however, are of extremely doubtful genuine- 
ness. What is better made out is, that a church existed 
at the close of that century in the Valais. During 
the fifth, others were established in the rest of the 
above-mentioned places. 

Meanwhile the Roman power sunk lower and lower. 
Not the misused people only, but many men of rank 
and power, encouraged foreign, in order to get rid 
of domestic, enemies. Under the perpetual minority 
of the imbecile Arcadius and Honorius, the empire, 
already more than once dissevered, became permanently 
parted into Eastern and Western. Precisely at this 
epoch of exhaustion, more numerous swarms of semi- 
barbarous nomad nations set themselves in motion than 

* H. Zschokke. 



450. 



BARBARIAN INROADS. 



at any former period ; the roughest and remotest of 
which drove the others forwards on the now defenceless 
frontiers of the empire. While from the east the Goths 
fell upon Italy, while the Vandals and the Suevi attacked 
Spain, the Burgundians (also a race of Vandal origin) 
marched on the Upper Rhine, from the Oder and Vistula. 
(a. d. 409.) Imperial Rome, too feeble to repel them, 
granted them, according to former examples, the posses- 
sion of the larger part of the lands which they had 
devastated; thus purchasing their alliance against enemies 
yet more formidable. 

The Burgundians fixed their residence on both sides 
of the Jura, on the lake of Geneva, in the Valais, on the 
banks of the Rhone and the Saone, They had adopted 
Christianity on their reception as Roman allies — a 
title which, by this time, had completely changed 
its import ; and, instead of future subjugation, au- 
gured future mastery. They combined with large 
and vigorous outward proportions a character less rude 
than that of some other northern nations. In the 
quality of peaceable guests and new allies of the empire, 
they spared the still remaining towns and other Roman 
monuments, and permitted the former owners to retain 
their established laws and customs ; appropriating, how- 
ever, to themselves, a third of the slaves, two thirds 
of the cultivated lands, and one half of the forests, 
gardens, and farm buildings. 

Much obscurity, during this period, rests on the his- 
tory of those regions which are now German Switzerland. 
It is not exactly known how far the first Burgundian 
empire extended itself over the plain of the Aar. East- 
ward of that stream, and over great part of Germany, 
the land was over-run by the Alemanni, whose inroads 
on the empire may be dated somewhat later than those 
of the Burgundians. (a. d. 450.) These new-comers, 
embittered towards whatever bore the name of Roman, 
destroyed the still remaining fragments of fortresses 
and cities, which, in common with all German tribes, 
they utterly detested. They did not treat the inhabitants 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



450. 



with cruelty, but reduced them to a state of complete 
servitude. All Roman landed property they seized 
without exception, and only allowed the tenants to 
remain there in the situation of bondmen, and on the con- 
dition of paying them dues. This new barbarian torrent 
overwhelmed the public monuments and symbols of 
Christianity. Whatever yet remained of the old culture 
disappeared, or, at all events, concealed itself. 

Towards the close of the fifth century, another Ger- 
man race, or rather confederacy of tribes, obtained 
ascendency. These were the Franks, a sturdy stem of 
heathens, whose power was established in Gaul by their 
leader Chlode wig (Clo vis — Louis). This chief engaged 
in hostilities against the Alemanni. In the plain of 
Tolbiac (Zulpich, near Cologne, on the Rhine) the hostile 
nations met in deadly conflict. Victory remained long 
undecided ; the fortune of the day seemed even to lean 
towards the Alemanni. In this emergency, Clovis swore 
aloud that he would turn, with all his Franks, to Chris- 
tianity, if he won the field. This, as he doubtless in- 
tended, being heard by his Christian Gallic troops, they 
resolved to show their faith in Christ, in its whole 
triumphant efficacy. The Alemanni could not stand 
against the onset of enthusiasts, who felt that they were 
fighting for the glory of God. The fall of their prince 
decided them to surrender, and transfer their allegiance 
to the victorious king of the Franks, and Clovis marched 
along with them into their territories. Here, however, 
hostility towards the Franks and their new gods in- 
duced many to refuse him obedience. It was not until 
nine years after his victory that the body of the tribe 
was brought to submission. Clovis resolved to extirpate 
a population so unmanageable. 

While Clovis raged thus furiously against the Alemanni, 
his brother-in-law Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, 
wrote to remind him that mercy and moderation better 
became a monarch than vengeance. As Clovis turned 
a deaf ear to this wise and benevolent counsel, many of 
the conquered Alemanni finally threw themselves into 



534. 



DISTINCTIONS OF RACE. 



15 



the arms of their intercessor. Thus Rhaetia became 
added to the dominions of the Ostrogoths; and at length, 
in the year 500 of our sera, south-western or Roman 
Switzerland belonged to the Burgundians ; northern or 
German Switzerland was shared between the Franks, 
the Alemanni, and the wilderness : Rhsetia was pos- 
sessed by the Ostrogoths. These partitions, however, 
were destined to have no long duration. The first 
Burgundian empire owed its final dissolution (a. d.534), 
in a great degree, to the family feuds and vices of its 
princes. The empire of the Ostrogoths verged to its 
fall about the same period. Five successive kings in- 
curred successive losses in war and land. Dietbert, king 
of the Franks, took advantage of their weakness to recover 
the possession of Rhsetia, Thenceforward the Franks 
held exclusive rule over the whole extent of Rhaetia 
and Helvetia. 

From this period is derivable, in a general way, with- 
out aiming at impossible exactness, the distinction of 
the French and German languages in Switzerland. So 
far as the dominions of the Alemanni, and since their 
subjection those of the German Franks, extended, the 
present Swiss dialect of German took its rise from the 
original roots of that language. In the lands about the 
lakes of Geneva and Neufchatel, where the power of the 
Burgundians was established, the Gallo- Roman popular 
dialect kept its ground, from which were formed the 
several Romance dialects : from these, again, the Pro- 
vencal ; and at last the modern French. 

More obscure in their origin, however obvious in their 
existence, are some characteristic varieties in the divi- 
sions of the race itself ; for notwithstanding all the 
mixtures which have hitherto taken place, and all 
local exceptions, a marked dissimilarity exists between 
them. The more rounded contours of the western in- 
habitants are distinguishable at once from the strong 
features of the eastern. The latter may conjecturally be 
traced to the Alemanni ; while the former are more 
probably inherited from a Frankish stem. 



16 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



500. 



CHAR II. 

HELVETIA UNDER THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 

500—936. 

EARLY INSTITUTIONS OF THE GERMAN TRIBES. LAWS. RULES 

OF EVIDENCE. TRIAL BY ORDEAL. TRIAL BY BATTLE. 

HELVETIA UNDER THE FRANK KINGS OF THE FAMILY OF 

MEROVEUS. —IMPROVED CULTIVATION. INFLUENCE OF THE 

CLERGY. DECLINE OF THE MEROVINGIAN RACE. ITS FALL. 

PEPIN CHARLEMAGNE VISITS HELVETIA ENCOURAGES 

EDUCATION AND AGRICULTURE. — JUDICIAL AND ECCLESIASTI- 
CAL POLITV. PARTITION OF THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE. 

INCURSIONS OF THE MAGYARS, OR HUNGARIANS. — MEA- 
SURES OF HENRY THE FOWLER. GROWTH OF TOWNS. 

The Frank kings of the family of Meroveus were the 
third exclusive rulers of Helvetia. As no fixed laws of 
succession existed, the country belonged, under their 
government, now to one head of the whole Frank domi- 
nions, now to several princes, amongst whom those 
dominions were divided, and who were no less divided 
by disputes among themselves. Omitting the intermin- 
able feuds of these princes, the perpetual alternation of 
conquests and losses, and other incidents equally little 
momentous, we shall rather attempt a rough draught of 
the social and judicial institutions of the German popu- 
lations at that period, in order to trace the gradual 
revival of Helvetia from a state of deep and utter deso- 
lation. 

The population, in those central parts of Europe 
which had been occupied by branches of the great Ger- 
man family, was a mixed race, compounded of the 
conquerors, the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, 
and the later ingrafted colonies of Rome. The first 
claimed the exclusive right to be lords, while the two 
latter were looked upon as slaves of the soil ; or, at the 



500. 



EARLY INSTITUTIONS. 



17 



utmost, as an inferior and ignoble race.of men, neither 
in rights nor in honours on an equality with freemen ; 
treated with little or no regard in matters of legislation ; 
and, above all, excluded from the privilege of bearing 
arms, — the proudest badge of freedom, and its only 
security. Military service was the first of public duties. 
The assembly of the people, in which every freeman 
had a voice, pronounced on all public affairs of im- 
portance ; and the monarch could not arbitrarily set 
aside its decisions. In peace, indeed, the king was only 
first of his peers, but in war-time his command was 
almost absolute ; and, as wars were almost incessant 
since the period when the German tribes had extended 
their incursions over the south of Europe, the people 
became more and more inured to obedience. The 
people might be said to consist exclusively of the 
conquering army. Individual warriors settled them- 
selves on scattered landed possessions. About a hundred 
farms or manors constituted a hundred (cent). Over 
this a centenary, or constable, was appointed, who held 
a court analogous to the old hundred court in England, 
which took cognizance of all cases concerning freemen 
or conquered nations. The public place for the ad- 
ministration of justice was called mallus. Over larger 
circles or districts counts were appointed ; over whom 
dukes presided, who were commonly the leaders in 
war. Besides the original and ordinary allotments 
after victory, to all freemen, of the spoils and con- 
quered territory, which thus became their independent 
property (allodium), the kings made separate grants to 
those who had done them special services, under the 
Roman denomination of beneftcium ; in later ages, 
feudum, or fief. The grantee was thereby placed in the 
condition of a vassal, and under special obligation to 
arm in defence of his feudal lord. Fiefs at first were 
not hereditary, nor even given for life; but, in the course 
of time, the vassals found means to render them inherit- 
able, and almost independent of the monarch. Such 
was the rise of hereditary nobility ; which, while on the 



18 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



500. 



one hand it set limits to the royal power, and reduced it 
in some countries nearly to nothings on the other hand 
depressed the common freemen to the condition of serfs. 

The laws partook of the rudeness of the period, and 
were few in number : these, however, were tolerably 
intelligible, and consisted less in commands than in pro- 
hibitions. Their main object was protection of pro- 
perty ; for in those ages theft was viewed with more 
abhorrence than murder, since even a coward can make 
himself master of things unarmed and inanimate. This 
abhorrence of the cowardly crime of theft went so far, 
that, according to the Saxon laws, a horse- stealer was 
punished with death ; while a money fine would expiate 
even the murder of a nobleman. The judge who let a 
robber escape was proceeded against as guilty of a 
capital crime. Whoever accepted a secret composition for 
theft was punishable equally with the thief. Whoever 
was charged by five impartial witnesses with theft must 
die. Hardly any other crime besides theft was punished 
with death, but treason and breach of trust. Most 
crimes had their money price ; by which a double ad- 
vantage w r as given to the rich over the poor, as the 
penalty was proportioned to the rank of the person 
against whom acts of violence (then the most frequent 
crimes) were committed, and was calculated thus in an 
inverse ratio to the pecuniary abilities of the payer; while 
non-payment entailed the loss of personal freedom, and 
degradation to the state of feudal bondage. The rudi- 
ments of trial by jury existed at this period. Appre- 
hension of the abuse of evidence, or rather ignorance 
of its use, introduced appeals to the judgment of God 
through the medium of the ordeal. The accused was 
made to plunge his hand into boiling water, take hold 
of a red-hot iron, or set foot on a red-hot ploughshare. 
The limb which had been thus tried was put in a sealed 
bag ; and the appearance which it presented on the 
third day was decisive of the party's guilt or innocence. 
Several other trials of this description came into use ; 
and their application lay almost entirely in the hands of 



628. 



TRIAL BY BATTLE. 



19 



the clergy. Deception s, which were only too easy, threw 
doubts at length on the aptitude of this instrument of 
justice ; but, when once the path of reason has been 
swerved from, men only glide from one absurd aber- 
ration into another. Single combat now superseded the 
ordeal, as a method of proof less easily eluded ; a method 
of which the vogue is not surprising at a period when 
irregular vindications of right by votes de fait were 
so frequent. W omen, and others unable to bear arms, 
were, in general, permitted to procure capable substitutes. 
These and similar modes of trial were, at least, not worse 
than the torture, and those other inhumanities which in 
later times were introduced in the nations of German 
origin from the laws of other lands, and through the 
spiritual tribunals. 

In the year 6l3, Clothair II. succeeded in uniting 
the whole empire of the Franks, after long internal 
wars and scenes of violence had taken place. Two 
years later, in 615, Clothair called his peers, secular and 
spiritual, together, to restore order in the land, and to 
remove existing grievances. In this assembly were 
settled the rights of the several ranks and races ; and a 
basis was laid for the future constitution of the empire. 
The people learned, by slow degrees, the value of peace 
and tranquillity. Prosperity was gradually restored to 
the wasted lands of Gaul and of Helvetia. On the de- 
mise of Clothair, in 628, his son Dagobert ascended the 
throne. What the father had begun the son success- 
fully continued, and administered his realm with vigour, 
wisdom, and justice. 

In these times Helvetia, which in earlier days had 
counted twelve towns, 400 villages, and above 350,000 
inhabitants, and where now nearly 2,000,000 human 
beings are collected in several thousand towns and vil- 
lages, lay in great part waste and desolate, covered over 
with morasses and forests. Here and there a cluster of 
rude tenements might be met with, around a farm, a 
fortress, or a monastery. The revival of a country is 
difficult after long disasters ; especially when its natural 

c 2 



20 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 



628. 



site and qualities are unfavourable to the rapid growth 
and bloom of civilisation. The recovery of Helvetia, 
therefore, could only advance slowly. It commenced, 
however, under Clothair and Dagobert. Villages and 
towns arose in many places ; and their rise was often 
favoured by religious foundations. Those of St. Gall, 
Disentis, Zurich, Lucerne, and Romainmotiers, may be 
traced to the times of which we have been treating. 
The bishops, — who, like their clergy, very generally 
lived in wedlock, — were elected by the latter and by 
the people, and afterwards confirmed by the king. 

While the clergy, as in most rude nations, was ex- 
clusively in possession of such knowledge as existed, a 
few individuals only among the laity could at that time 
read, and still fewer could write. This brought into 
the hands of the clergy, besides their spiritual power 
over the conscience, considerable political influence ; and 
enabled them, in a manner, to monopolise the functions; 
of ministers, envoys, and agents in all the most im- 
portant affairs of monarchs and great men. Into their 
hands fell the education of the upper classes, and the 
composition of history, — including, of course, the for- 
midable instruments of praise and blame. Their in- 
fluence was enormous in the diets of the empire ; and, 
when Clothair demanded contributions from them, they 
complained, not of tyranny, but of sacrilege. Yet 
kings, who knew how to vindicate the dignity of their 
office, maintained a wholesome ascendency over the sy- 
nods of the clergy ; and these again opposed themselves, 
not unfrequently, to clerical, social, and moral abuses. 

Soon after the time of king Dagobert, the Merovingian 
dynasty began to verge towards ruin. The effeminacy, 
tyranny, and vices of these princes brought them, finally, 
into contempt with their subjects. They gave over the 
government altogether into the hands of their prime 
functionary, the mayor of the palace (major domus) ; 
who was also commander-in-chief of the army. The 
elevation of Pepin of Heristal to that dignity, through 
the support of the nobles, in the year 68 7, is enough to 



768. 



CHARLEMAGNE. 



21 



show that the royal power had dwindled away to a 
shadow. Under the vigorous administration of his son, 
Charles Martel, the royal person ceased to appear at 
all, except in the annual popular assembly of the 
Franks on May-day. The Frank monarchy seems 
indeed, at this time, to have nearly reached the ideal 
of constitutional aristocracy. The king was a mere 
puppet in the hands of the men of influence ; and the 
mayor of the palace played the part of responsible 
minister, in executing the mandates of this virtual re- 
presentative body. Six monarchs of the Merovingian 
dynasty were cut off, within the space of forty years, 
by sword or poison. Of few of these can history make 
any honourable mention. At length, when in addition 
to unworthiness came impoverishment, (for the Mero- 
vingians, in order to maintain themselves on the throne, 
were forced to alienate their hereditary domains in fa- 
vour of their proud and rapacious nobles,) these princes 
lost entirely the regards of the people. In the year 751, 
two centuries and a half since the erection of the Mero- 
vingian dynasty by Clovis, Childeric III. was deposed 
from the throne by the assembly of the people at Soissons, 
thrust aside into a convent, and succeeded on the throne 
by the mayor of his palace, Pepin the Little, who founded 
the new Carlo vingian dynasty. The whole proceeding 
was sanctioned by the blessing of pope Stephen III. 

The Carlovingian dynasty, founded by Pepin, re- 
ceived its name from his son Charles ; who not only 
excelled his father in greatness, but exalted himself 
high above the mass of his contemporaries. His 
reign, contrasted with that of his son Louis, who suc- 
ceeded him, exhibits an instructive example how, with 
resources nearly similar, by means of skilful adminis- 
tration, a vigorous prince can elevate himself along with 
his people, and even efface the memory of important 
errors and blemishes ; while, on the other hand, an in- 
capable ruler, without bad dispositions, may not only 
make himself individually contemptible, but cripple and 
confine the national energies. 



22 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 768* 

Pepin, with consent of his nobles, had, in 768, di- 
vided his kingdom between his sons, Charles and Car- 
lomann ; and the early death of the latter did not leave 
the former free from the suspicion of having hastened 
it by poison. Charles, shortly after his accession, put 
an end to the Lombard kingdom in Upper Italy. The 
Saxons, in the regions of the Lower Elbe and Weser, — 
who, notwithstanding many defeats, persisted in the 
most courageous resistance, — were brought into sub- 
jection,, after thirty years' warfare, and compelled to 
embrace the Christian religion. The Arabs, who pos- 
sessed Spain, were driven back as far as the Ebro. In 
the east, he forced Bavaria to acknowledge his supre- 
macy, and extended his pow r er as far as the E,aab in 
Hungary. Yet he was not a mere insatiable conqueror : 
he directed his unremitting attention to internal ad- 
ministration. Through his capitularies, he aimed at 
improving the mode of administering justice ; and the 
earlier institution of circuits, made by royal commis- 
sioners, was called into new life under his reign. 

He w T as crowned at Rome as emperor, by the pope, 
in the year 800, — a solemnity which enhanced the 
outward dignity of his throne, but placed his feeble 
successors in a dangerous state of dependence on the 
spiritual authority, and fortified the prejudice which, 
for ages afterwards, shook the independence of thrones 
no less than the internal repose of nations. Similar in 
its tendency was the law enacted by Charlemagne, — that 
bishops should be nominated, not by the royal authority, 
but by the clergy and people in every diocese, without 
any other recommendation than merit. 

Helvetia had her share of the provisions made by 
Charlemagne, with a wisdom far beyond his age, for 
the popular instruction. Among the schools which he 
established or reformed was that of Zurich, where the 
grateful recollection of his bounty was preserved by an 
annual celebration. He also introduced vine-cultivation 
into Helvetia ; and peopled several districts by transport- 
ing thither the conquered Saxons. He occasionally made 



814. 



DECLINE OF THE CARLO VINGIANS. 



23 



some stay at Zurich ; and enriched the cathedral church 
with his donations. We read, moreover, that men from 
the Thurgau served in his campaigns, whose strength 
and spirit attracted general notice. 

After the death of Charlemagne, Helvetia, notwith- 
standing the frequent partitions of the empire, and the 
internal disorder occasioned by them, enjoyed peace for a 
century. The land nourished greatly during this period, 
under what was called the Second or Little Burgundian 
kingdom, which was founded by count Boso of Vienne, 

and which maintained itself for more than an a°fe inde- 

© 

pendent of the sinking Carlovingian dynasty. Many 
common-lands were divided, and converted into arable. 
In the Valais, and even in the neighbourhood of Zurich, 
vines were cultivated. The inhabitants, formerly scatter- 
ed, now collected themselves into farms and villages, in 
which commonly stood a baronial tower or mansion. 
Every village had a special jurisdiction, under its vogt, 
or bailiff. The whole district assisted in the trial of im- 
portant cases. The general assembly, which was held 
in the open air, was joined by every one who possessed 
seven feet of land before and behind him. The elders 
took the first place; the count stated the case; and every 
man gave judgment on it as God had given him under- 
standing. After the case had been thus debated, the 
judges, properly so called, stepped into the circle, — that 
is to say, into the middle of a ring formed by the rest 
of the meeting, — and that which they declared was re- 
ceived for doom. The monastery of St. Gall, already 
wealthy and powerful, distinguished itself for science 
and for discipline. It was not, indeed, an age of native 
learning; nor had St. Gall much to boast of in the shape 
of intellectual productions of its inmates or tenantry. 
Here, however, the books of the fathers and ancient 
historians were read and copied ; and many a now ex- 
tensively diffused Latin work might have been lost to 
the modern world but for the toils of these obscure 
monks, inhabiting a corner of the Thurgau. The use of 
religious foundations, in the infancy of national culture, 

c 4 



24 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



843. 



may be likened to that of firs planted to screen the growth 
of young trees. Oak and beech may long survive their 
dark and withered nurses ; but it was these whose 
formal and sombre lines could alone have served effect- 
ually to fence the tender saplings from the bleak gales of 
the north. 

The partition of the empire of Charlemagne between 
the two branches of his family, which established 
themselves on the thrones of France and Germany, at 
which the separate histories of those countries may be 
considered to commence, and the extinction, not long af- 
terwards, of the Little Burgundian line, threw Helvetia 
under the power and protection (such as it was) of the 
German empire, restored by Otho the Great from amidst 
the ruins, which were all that remained of the lofty 
pile of Charlemagne. The decline of the Carlovingian 
race was made to subserve their own aggrandisement 
by the counts and by the rest of the nobility. Pepin 
and Charlemagne, by frequent changes, and by strong 
control of their functionaries, had imposed checks on 
the increase of the power of the counts. But now the 
lords, great and small, spiritual or secular, turned to 
good account the weakness of the government. Many of 
them aimed with success at absolute independence. The 
great nobles exercised oppression over the less powerful 
members of their own order; and exacted from them 
oaths of allegiance, as though they were their masters 
and monarchs. In effecting their designs, the counts 
made frequent appeals to arms, without asking the con- 
sent of their princes ; and rendered the empire, which 
they ought to have protected, a theatre of ravage and 
desolation. Even the servants of the church began to 
stretch their holy hands, in all directions, after the trea- 
sures of this world. Enriched by perpetual pious be- 
quests, they at length found themselves strong enough to 
push their pretensions, if need were, at the point of the 
sword. This struggle for aggrandisement gave occasion 
for continual strife betwixt the clergy and nobles, whose 
plans were perpetually crossing each other. 



919' MEASURES OF HENRY THE FOWLER. 25 

The lords and counts, who ruled during this period 
in Switzerland, domineered over the land uncontrolled ; 
and only feared or flattered the German emperors when 
they hoped to increase their power by their assistance. 
Union among themselves they never knew, or knew at 
times only of instant and universal peril. 

Such peril hung over all in the days of Henry I., sur- 
named the Fowler. A fearful scourge, — the irruption of 
hordes of absolute barbarians, — from which the land had 
been exempted during more than four centuries, broke out 
afresh, shortly after the opening of the tenth century. 
The Magyars, or Hungarians, like the Huns, their savage 
predecessors in former ages, extended their multitudinous 
and mischievous incursions into the very heart of Ger- 
many, into Switzerland, and even into Italy and France. 
They wasted the whole face of the open country, and 
exercised savage cruelties on the unarmed inhabitants. 
On the other hand, their ignorance could effect little or 
nothing against fortified and well-provisioned places. 

The principal mode of defence adopted by Henry was 
at once the most effectual, as against so rude an enemy, and 
the most permanently useful to the country, long after 
the immediate emergency had passed away. He built 
walls around a number of defensible places, as a refuge 
for the property and persons of the country people. The 
fortifications of Zurich, of Soleure, and other Swiss 
towns, are generally referred to this epoch. To this 
epoch also belongs the first foundation of the class of 
burghers, whereby Henry the Fowler has merited to be 
viewed as in no small degree the founder of all modern 
civilisation. It is true that he could not contemplate 
all the effects of his own measure ; of part, indeed, he 
could not have the slightest conception. This does not 
detract from the wisdom and benevolence of his purpose, 
in contending with the reluctance of the German tribes 
of his kingdom, who, accustomed as they w r ere to vaga- 
bond licence, unwillingly sat down in walled towns, 
and looked upon these sanctuaries of popular rights as 
prisons. To counterweigh these prejudices, Henry con- 



26 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 



919. 



ferred on the towns a number of important favours 
and privileges ; which, in many points, placed the 
burghers on an equality with the nobles. The lesser 
nobles themselves, who, as we have seen, were elsewhere 
exposed to oppression by the powerful men of their own 
order, received, along with ordinary freemen, a due 
share in the management of civic concerns. All the 
other settlers, moreover, were looked upon as freemen, 
with the exception of those who were bondsmen of con- 
vents or cloisters already existing within the w r alls of the 
town. Thus, at the sides of the nobles and the clergy 
arose a new class — that of the burghers ; which, in the 
sequel, came to take part in the municipal administra- 
tion, and assert a higher degree of independence. 

It is probable that Henry saw T , in his new municipal- 
ities, the cradle of a third estate in his kingdom : it is 
certain, at least, that the birth of a rival and formidable 
interest was viewed with jealousy by the higher nobles 
and clergy. These tyrants had extended their powers 
arbitrarily, not only over their vassals, but over those 
who might at any time have voluntarily courted their 
protection. They demanded of them new contributions 
and services. Freeholders, or freemen, were descend- 
ants, for the most part, from the race of the Frank con- 
querors. Some of them, indeed, were descendants of the 
conquered ; to whom freedom had, at different times, 
been conceded. Almost every where, however, they 
lived mixed and confused with bondsmen, and did not 
always keep a jealous watch for the maintenance of their 
freedom. Thus, amidst the pressure of warfare^ indi- 
gence, and ignorance, freemen were confounded with, 
and counted for, serfs. Such was the state of things 
throughout Switzerland ; it was such, indeed, through- 
out the German empire universally. The free class of 
the common people w T as almost entirely extinguished ; 
and the German race was nearly reduced to the state of 
so many others. From this degradation Henry's insti- 
tution of towns rescued it. The inhabitants of these 
towns, fortified by strong walls and close internal union, 



936. 



GROWTH OF TOWNS. 



27 



could defend themselves from all assaults of violence, — 
could harbour the oppressed, as guests or citizens, — and 
could reinforce their internal strength by alliances. In 
effect, the burghers could soon bid defiance to the 
nobles, and even balance the political weight of the 
clergy. It was not long before the towns committed 
themselves in strong and successful rivalship with these 
formidable influences. While the nobles were im- 
poverished by disastrous feuds, by senseless extrava- 
gance, by changes in the value of commodities, &c. ; the 
towns, on the other hand, flourished in the possession of 
free constitutions, active traffic, wealth, power, and im- 
perial favour, — as they supported the emperor's warlike 
undertakings with men and money, and on all occasions 
adhered to him more faithfully than the nobles. Such 
was the rise of Henry's institution ; not, indeed, sud- 
den, as if by the stroke of a magic wand, but vigorous, 
though gradual in its progress. 



CHAP. III. 

DYNASTY OF ZiERINGEN IN HELVETIA. 

1090—1240. 

POWER OF THE CHURCH. HENRY IV. POPE GREGORY VII. 

DYNASTY OF ZiERINGEN IN HELVETIA. THE CRUSADES 

THEIR EFFECTS. IMPROVED CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. 

BERCHTHOLD IV. AUGMENTS THE NUMBER OF FORTIFIED 

TOWNS ENCOURAGES THE BURGHERS BY IMMUNITIES. BERCH- 
THOLD V. LAYS THE FOUNDATION OF BERNE. ERECTS IT 

INTO A FREE TOWN OF THE EMPIRE. REFUSES THE IM- 
PERIAL CROWN. LAST OF THE LINE OF ZJERINGEN. 

FREE MEN OF SCHWYTZ AFFORD THE FIRST DEMONSTRATION 
OF THEIR EXISTENCE. 

It was reserved for the eleventh century to see the 
growth of a power which, under the banners of a sacred 
institution, and through the union of invisible weapons 
with others of more earthly temper, extended itself 
equally over sovereigns and their subjects. Invariably 
fixed on one purpose ; apparently quiet, as long as no 



28 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1039. 



occasion offered for acting ; pliant and flexible under 
the pressure of fear for its own safety, and ever prompt 
and dexterous in the use of opportunities ; it had formed 
and matured a regular offensive system, with formidable 
resources and auxiliaries ; and only required a daring 
leader, a suitable field, and careless opponents, to show 
itself in its whole extent and under its true colours. 

Helvetia hoped in vain to enjoy repose beneath the 
wide-extended wing of the German empire. The obsti- 
nate, protracted, and destructive strife which raged 
between the emperor and the pope, engendered the 
most violent disorders even in its mountain recesses. 
During a century and a half, the German empire had 
been governed by a vigorous line of princes, who raised 
the imperial power to such a pitchy that the revival of a 
dominion such as Charlemagne had planned did not 
appear beyond the bounds of possibility. The rise of 
such an enormous power was prevented by the papacy. 
Hitherto the popes had been under the sovereignty of 
the emperors ; the influence of the latter had decided 
their elections, and superintended all their proceedings. 
The popes had long wished to be freed from this bur- 
densome supervision. Many members of the clergy 
likewise, tired of a state of tutelage under their arch- 
bishops and bishops, hoped to gain a freer field of action, 
by magnifying the more distant authority of the papacy. 
The popes, besides, well knew how to take advantage of 
the weakness and dissensions of the secular powers ; 
their disputes with the princes or bishops ; the love of 
freedom in the towns ; the love of power in the nobles ; 
but especially of those cases in which the emperors 
sought papal mediation and arbitrement. Even in the 
reign of Henry II., whose attachment to the priesthood 
may probably have gone farther towards procuring the 
honour of saintship for him than even the strict piety of 
his life, the imperial confirmation of the papal election 
was no longer treated as necessary. The emperor Con- 
rad, busied with other matters, did not attend to Rome. 
But, in 1039, the imperial throne was ascended by his 



1056. 



HENRY IV. GREGORY VII. 



29 



son, under the title of Henry III. Since Charlemagne, 
no prince had stood at the head of the German people, 
who with such energy preserved the imperial dignity 
inviolate, and ruled with so much vigour every part of 
his extended empire. After many great undertakings, 
he had leisure to turn his eyes towards Rome, which was 
at that time distracted hy the contending claims of three 
popes. Henry deposed all three, and re-established the 
ordinance that no papal election was valid without the 
imperial confirmation. So long as he lived, German 
prelates occupied exclusively the papal chair; but his suc- 
cessors in vain sought to maintain a similar influence. 

On the demise of Henry III., in 1056", the imperial 
crown descended on the head of his son, Henry IV.; 
who, at the time of his father's death, was a child of 
less than six years old. He gave evidence, at an early 
age, of great qualities, of a fiery spirit^ and chivalrous 
disposition. He was spoiled, however, to such a 
degree by the injudicious treatment of his guardians, 
that his noble natural faculties were defaced, — without, 
however, being utterly extinguished, — by wanton levity, 
pride, passion, vindictiveness, and boundless ambition. 
Under his reign, the discord between emperors and popes 
broke out into open warfare, which raged through nearly 
half a century, and at a later period blazed out anew. 

Contemporary with Henry IV. was Hildebrand, better 
known by the name of pope Gregory VII. Few cha- 
racters in history have been eulogised or censured with 
more vehemence than that of this prelate. Some have 
represented him as a monster in human shape, — 
nay, with a laughable distortion of his name, as a 
hell-brand. Others paint him in angel hues, as an 
honour to human nature. Neither side pays any regard 
to truth. Born at Siena or Saone, an Italian town, 
the son of a blacksmith, Hildebrand entered early into 
the spiritual profession. He showed talents of a high 
order; was invited to the papal court; and here, by that 
ascendency which belongs to great over common minds, 
tie soon became the soul of all undertakings. He had 



30 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1073. 

set it before him as the aim of his life,, to exalt the suc- 
cessor of St. Peter, the delegate of God upon earth, over 
all kings and princes, and to annihilate the influence of 
the emperor, as of every other secular ruler, in eccle- 
siastical matters. This plan was followed by Gregory 
throughout his whole life with such skill, perseverance, 
strength, and singleness of purpose, as to rank him 
amongst the most extraordinary characters in history. 
In his times the grossest disorders and abuses had crept 
in amongst the higher and lower clergy. Extravagance, 
immorality, vice of every kind, had ceased to be a rarity 
amongst them : and, as the dignities of the church were 
bought and sold, the most unworthy were often found 
in the highest places. Inspired with the most ardent 
zeal for the freedom of the church, and for the morality 
of the spiritual order, Hildebrand resolved to lay the 
axe to the root of these evils. Even while only papal 
chancellor, he toiled towards his end by multiplied ordi- 
nances ; and when he deemed every thing ripe for his 
grand object, he ascended at length the papal throne, as 
Gregory VII., a. d. 1073. Having contrived to obtain 
the emperor's assent to his nomination, though the 
election had already taken place without his concurrence, 
Gregory at once set to work in the accomplishment of 
his schemes against the secular power; and struck the 
first blow in the year 1075. A triple and solemn pro- 
hibition went forth to the clergy on the several points 
of celibacy, simony, and investiture. 

The blow was now struck — the measures of Gregory 
fell like lightning from heaven; and the conflagration 
threatened to involve all Germany. The spiritual and 
secular powers stepped into the lists, and struggled for 
superiority; — the one with the aid of abused faith and 
the most audacious assumptions ; the other, backed by 
the sword, and based on titles hallowed by centuries. 

It was not surprising that Henry should oppose with 
his whole power the papal ordinances, which endangered 
to such a degree the imperial dignity. But the pope also 
put forth his utmost strength, and found numerous ad- 



1075. EXCOMMUNICATION OF THE EMPEROR. 31 

herents among the discontented nobles. A schism took 
place throughout the whole empire. Provinces, arch- 
bishoprics^ towns, monasteries, — nay, many private 
families, — were the prey of internal divisions. Sincerity 
and confidence, the corner-stones of human society, 
seemed to disappear from the earth. Subjects revolted 
against their princes ; children took arms against their 
parents. All the bonds of family affection were loosed ; 
and what mankind had regarded hitherto as holy and in- 
violable, was trodden under foot with contempt. When 
the papal anathema finally went forth against the emperor, 
while, on the other hand, the ban of the empire fell on 
his opponents, confusion reached its highest pitch ; and, 
besides the grand struggle which was soon to begin, a 
thousand petty feuds broke out through the whole extent 
of the empire ; which were fought for and against pope 
and emperor, often indeed merely under cover of their 
names, for the gratification of private rapacity, passion, 
or some long-cherished hatred. 

Helvetia, at this period, offered no agreeable aspect. 
Its first and most powerful prince, duke Rudolf of 
Swabia, along with Berchthold of Zaeringen, duke of 
Carinthia, and many other princes, had revolted from the 
emperor. The country was divided betwixt the parties : 
Rudolph was ascendant in Swabia ; the emperor, in 
Burgundian Helvetia. 

Through the excommunication launched against Henry, 
Gregory freed from their oaths of allegiance all the impe- 
rial vassals and subjects, and solemnly declared that even 
emperors, kings, and princes, with all their powers, were 
subject to him, the pope ; who, as divine plenipotentiary, 
was warranted to give and take away thrones. Gregory 
was resolved to try the first application of this principle 
on the emperor himself, the first of secular princes, — 
an enterprise in which success was possible ; the rather 
that Henry, in the heart of his empire, had powerful 
enemies, who would willingly see him humbled, even 
partly at their own expense. Henry, in whom Gre- 
gory's measure excited rage rather than fear, as the 



32 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1076. 

invisible power of the papal anathema was not yet known 
by experience, retorted by a scornful deposition of the 
pope. Thereupon the latter ianched a new excom- 
munication^ and pronounced the deposition of the em- 
peror himself. An impression most unfavourable to 
Henry was produced by this extraordinary measure. His 
enemies exulted ; for their cause had now become that 
of the church, and their customary war-cry from thence- 
forward was " St. Peter." Henry's friends became dis- 
couraged; and events took such a turn, that the princes 
at length threatened to give effect to the papal sentence, 
if Henry did not clear himself from it within the term 
of a year. Had the latter been a man of blameless cha- 
racter, the power of a mere word could not have struck 
him down thus ; for the word itself acquired its irre- 
sistible effect entirely through the public opinion. But 
his errors and presumption had made him enemies in- 
numerable, who now were glad to veil their revenge with 
the pretext of religion. In this situation, the emperor 
had no resource left but to creep w T ith his wife and 
children into Italy, in the depth of winter, amidst un- 
heard-of difficulties and dangers, without money, without 
escort, through the mountain passes occupied by Rudolf 
and the rest of his enemies. On his arrival, he was 
hailed with loud acclamations by his Lombard vassals ; 
and nothing but that want of true spirit, which depresses 
the presumptuous in the day of ill fortune, could have 
prevented him from marching on the pope at the head 
of an army, and induced him to prefer imploring 
remission of the sentence at the price of the hardest con- 
ditions and the deepest humiliations. With rage and 
revenge in his heart, he returned to Germany. Here 
he found duke Rudolf of Swabia enthroned as anti- 
Caesar. But he found, too, a strong party of adherents, 
in the free towns, in the clergy, who were mostly averse 
to Gregory's innovations ; and amongst all who felt in- 
dignation for the dishonour done to the German name, 
and sympathy for their deeply humbled emperor. Now 
began a war of extermination, by which even a large 



1085. 



DEATH OF GREGORY. 



33 



portion of Helvetia was depopulated. Gregory, who at 
first regarded the scene of confusion quietly, now ful- 
minated new excommunications, but in vain. In vain 
he sent his favourite Rudolf a consecrated crown, with 
the arrogant inscription, " Petra dedit Petro, Petrus 
diadema Rodolfo." The fortune of war declared itself 
in favour of Henry. In a decisive battle at Merseburg, 
in 1080, Rudolf was mortally wounded, and his hand, 
which had been cut off in the combat, being shown him, 
he is said to have to have repentantly exclaimed, (i That 
is the hand which I pledged in swearing fealty to the 
emperor ! " His fall was regarded as a judgment of God, 
and Henry's adherents gained the ascendency. The 
archbishop Gilbert of Ravenna was elected anti-pope, as 
Clement III. Gregory, banished from Rome, died in 
exile at Salerno, A. D. 1085. Henry's subsequent for- 
tunes, the rebellion of his sons, and his death in the 
year 1106, do not concern the history of Switzerland so 
much as the foregoing occurrences. The main dispute 
was smoothed by a tardy compromise, in 1122, between 
Henry V. and Pope Calixtus II. The pope retained 
investiture by ring and staff, as a symbol of his spiritual 
jurisdiction. Enfeoffment of secular possessions, with 
the sceptre, was recognised as belonging to the emperor. 
But the conflict between spiritual and secular supremacy 
was not to be stilled for any lengthened period. 

After the fall of Rudolf of Swabia, the an ti- Caesar, at 
Merseburg, his vacant dukedom was bestowed by the 
victorious Henry IV. on his son-in-law Frederick of 
Hohenstaufen. Rudolf's son, count Berchthold of 
Rheinfelden, contested, in a long war, the possession of 
his father's domain, with its new owner. Berchthold 
died in the year 1090, by w T hich event the rights of the 
count of Rheinfelden were transmitted to his brother-in- 
law Berchthold II. of Zaeringen. The nobles in Ulm 
recognised the new duke immediately, and tendered 
him the oath of allegiance. Frederick of Hohenstaufen 
prepared for a renewal of the war w T ith fresh vigour ; 
but Berchthold well knew that the land was tired out 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1097. 



by protracted vexations, and he himself preferred a 
moderate fortune to the doubtful issue of warfare. He, 
therefore, appeared in the presence of the emperor at 
the diet of Mentz, in 1097^ and there surrendered the 
ducal office and dignity into Frederick's hands, termin- 
ating by this submission the four and twenty years' hos- 
tility, maintained by his house against Henry IV. As 
a recompense for this renunciation, Henry shared the 
sometime duchy of Swabia or Alemannia between the 
two candidates, so that Swabia properly so called was 
allotted to Frederick, while Helvetia was conferred upon 
Berchthold, almost in its present extent. This arrange- 
ment finally separated Swabia from Helvetia, and ex- 
tinguished the very name of Alemannia. Thus the 
land w r as tranquiliised ; and thus the beneficent powers 
of the princes of Zseringen was established in Helvetia. 
They found the land in a far from happy condition. 
Long and furious warfare had engendered insecu- 
rity, immorality, distress, and disorder. On the other 
hand, foundations pious and useful for the times, in- 
creased in number, and promoted culture physical and 
moral. The towns, too, acquired more and more im- 
portance ; on the whole, the accession of the dynasty of 
Zaeringen seemed to announce an era of more general 
well-being. 

While such were the mutual relations between Ger- 
many and Helvetia, a series of events, of which the first 
scene lay in Asia, produced effects in the whole of 
of Christian Europe, which for their magnitude may 
well claim attention. 

The more difficult it is to infuse new ideas into man- 
kind, the more strongly such ideas work when once they 
have found entrance. As several of the nations of an- 
tiquity were accustomed to visit sites supposed holy, 
where oracles were uttered or any other wonders worked, 
as the Jews performed certain religious exercises only 
in the temple of Jerusalem, even so an opinion spread 
in the course of ages amongst Christians, that pilgrim- 
ages or travels to remote places, to which especial 



1099- 



THE CRUSADES. 



35 



sacredness was attributed, — prayers and penance offered 
up in such places, — must have efficacy far superior to 
that of acts of simple piety confined within the circle of 
home. Pilgrimage to the holy sepulchre became more 
and more frequent ; and so long as the Arabian power 
extended over Palestine, the Christian pilgrims met with 
mild treatment. But when the Arabs were forced to 
yield to the Seldschuk Turks, the pilgrims were often 
treated with harshness and cruelty by the latter. The 
conviction at length arose, that it was a duty to reclaim 
the holy place from such hands. Peter of Amiens, a 
hermit of doubtful character, brought the long collected 
elements of wrath to an explosion. The pope, who 
might be well assured of gaining a great influence in 
the guidance of the popular force, and even over the 
princes, promised absolution of sins and a crown of 
eternal glory to all who should join the holy expedition. 
In the year 109&, the first crusading army set cut, 
composed of numerous volunteers, in great part from 
France. In 1099; they made themselves masters of 
Jerusalem and the neighbouring country. 

At different times, after shorter or longer intervals, 
during the course of the two following centuries, em- 
perors, kings, princes, bishops, dukes, counts, with a 
multitude of priests and monks, whole bands of burghers 
and peasantry, nay, troops of women, and even of chil- 
dren, marched against the infidels. The first electric 
impulse was renewed in the sequel, partly by similar 
means of excitement, and partly to preserve from ruin the 
newly established empire in the East. Rome neglected 
no means of fuelling the zeal which had been spread 
through all classes of society. In exact proportion as 
the monarchs of Europe fixed their views on the East, 
while they weakened their dominion at home, the papal 
power was inevitably aggrandised ; and as these wars 
were regarded as religious concerns, the spiritual autho- 
rity was more than once successful in uniting the whole 
forces of the West in its own hands. Incalculable 
profits besides resulted to the clergy from the acccm- 

d 2 



36 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND* 



1100. 



plishment of pious vows and donations, and to this ge- 
neral movement many monasteries owe their origin. 
These were founded by some count or baron, either in 
fulfilment of a vow in time of need and peril ; or, in 
order to testify gratitude for his fortunate return ; or, 
finally, to close his life in practices of devotion. 

As almost every great convulsion of nature or hu- 
manity, notwithstanding all the mischief it may occasion, 
directly or indirectly produces salutary consequences, so 
from these expeditions, although their principal end was 
attained in only a transient manner, and several succes- 
sive generations suffered severely from them, there still 
resulted many beneficial effects, and these were extended 
widely over Helvetia. 

Many noble lords had found their death in the cru- 
sades ; many families were impoverished and forced to 
alienate their properties. In this way the large landed 
estates were brought into numerous hands, whereby 
not only freemen but bondsmen improved their situation, 
and were enabled to acquire property. The latter class 
were treated with more humanity by their masters, lest 
they should march off in a body with the crusaders ; 
and received tracts of land from the owners for cul- 
tivation, on the payment of ground rents and other dues. 
Thus the vassals were encouraged to exertion and eco- 
nomy ; many of them succeeded in still farther better- 
ing their condition, and in buying off their old or recent 
burdens and obligations. Similar acquisitions were also 
made by the towns ; admission into which from this 
period became easier for the vassals of the nobles. 

Thus a gradually altered aspect was taken by Hel- 
vetia, in common with the other lands on this side the 
Alps, partly through the growth of the towns, partly 
through the effects of the crusades. Improvements were 
effected in agriculture. Not only many better modes 
of laying out the land were introduced from the ex- 
amples of other countries, but new r species of vines, 
fruit trees, vegetables, and grains were imported. The 
dukes of Zaeringen, besides that they possessed over 



1152. 



INCREASE OF TOWNS. 



37 



Helvetia the delegated prerogatives of the empire, owed 
likewise to the free election of Zurich, and of other 
towns, the office of their kast-vogt, or schirm-vogt, which 
in English may be rendered warden, or patron. The 
ecclesiastical establishments, not being in general suf- 
ficiently armed against external violence, found it expe- 
dient to have secular protectors, on whom they could 
rely for safety and defence. They, of course, chose 
some powerful lord ; and these in their turn, as the 
office conveyed much power and influence, were ever 
solicitous to obtain it : many even succeeded in making 
it hereditary. In German the officer is called kast-vogt, 
or schirm-vogt, which in some Latin muniments is 
sometimes rendered castaldus, but more commonly ad- 
vocates. The cities and free states in their infancy 
accepted likewise of such protectors, who afterwards 
often became oppressors.* 

In the year 1152, Berchthold IV. stood at the head cf 
the house of Za^ringen. He had numerous dependants, 
but even more numerous enemies, who envied his- pre- 
ponderant power. In order to keep these within bounds, 
and to strengthen himself against the nobles of Bur- 
gundy, Berchthold walled in many existing hamlets, or 
built new towns, and gave them extraordinary privileges . 
In these the love of freedom, of tranquillity, or of 
profit, collected together a multitude of persons, who 
naturally adhered with steady fidelity to the duke, by 
whom their new position had been given, and was 
secured to them. On the other hand, the duke in- 
truded no one as a citizen, nor prevented any from 
changing their places of residence at pleasure ; so that 
free and bondsmen vied with each other in pressing into 
the towns. The latter became free when their masters 
did not claim them within the term of one year, and 
prove their vassalage by the oath of seven witnesses. The 
burghers imposed taxes on themselves. They were 
obliged to march no farther in the wars of the duke 
than so that they might still sleep at home the same 

* Planta, vol. i. p. 112. 
D 3 



38 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1178. 



night. Every burgher must possess a house, as pledge 
of his allegiance. In good or evil fortune they stood 
each for all, and all for each. Thus simple were the laws 
and customs observed by the rising class of burghers. 
These laws and regulations, indeed, were calculated, not 
for the general good of a state, but for a single town, 
and for those who belonged to it. This apparent selfish- 
ness may be pardoned, if we recollect the necessities and 
circumstances of the period. At the time when towns 
were founded, nothing like patriotism, far less zeal for 
the general rights of humanity, could exist. The burgher 
who was heartily attached to his town, and the knight 
who cherished love for his prince, and cultivated the 
virtues of his order, was regarded as fulfilling his whole 
duties. For in those times the burgher viewed his town 
in the light of his father-land, and the citizen knew no 
state but the court of his prince. A closer bond between 
the individual parts of a commonwealth, the sacrifice of 
private to public interests, respect for the rights of 
others, in a word, a general love of country, was the 
product of a more advanced age. Besides, the nobles 
and clergy strove with their whole strength to keep down 
the growing power of the citizens. This imposed on 
them the most vigilant regard to their own interests, and 
the most complete union among themselves, so that the 
well-being of others could not be taken into account. 

Berchthold V. followed the example of his father in 
laying the foundations of towns ; for the dukes of Zse- 
ringen governed on a plan grounded upon, or rather 
prescribed by, the circumstances of the times. They 
found their power menaced by the nobility, and were 
therefore obliged to seek its humiliation. All the nobles 
of Burgundy revolted from the government of Berch- 
thold V., so that he was forced to live in a state of open 
warfare with his subjects. The duke twice defeated the 
insurgents. 

About this time he formed the hamlets of Burgdorf 
and Mcudon into little towns ; yet he still sought a more 
advantageous site, which should be nearer the possessions 



1191. 



BUILDING OF BERNE. 



39 



of his enemies, and such that the foundation of a town 
upon it should cause no apprehensions to his adherents. 
A little hamlet, called Berne, lay near the fortress of 
Nydeck, on a peninsula which is washed by the Aar. 
The banks of the rapidly flowing stream are on all sides 
high and steep. On the site of the present town lay a 
considerable pasture ground, and behind it a thick wood. 
On every side were visible only a few farm-houses and 
villages. The strong-holds of the nobles frowned from 
every height in the neighbourhood. 

About a month after Berchthold had defeated them, he 
commissioned Cuno of Bubenberg to surround Berne 
with walls. Cuno exceeded the prescribed extent of 
ground, and soon afterwards it was thought fit to extend 
still further the limits which he had set to the town. 
For a long time the duration of the new town seemed 
doubtful. The climate was raw, the region unattrac- 
tive, the enemy's vicinity dangerous. To counterbalance 
these disadvantages, however, Berchthold placed it as a 
free town of the empire, under the emperor's immediate 
protection, and thus rendered it independent of his own 
house for the future. Allured by this extraordinary 
boon, many of the inferior nobles, who valued freedom, 
which they could not enjoy in a state of isolation, 
gathered themselves together into the town, to secure by 
brotherly union this most precious of all possessions. 
Such were, for example, the Erlachs, Bubenbergs, and 
Muhlerers. Numerous artificers were attracted by hopes 
of profit. Even in its increased extent the town could 
not contain the increasing multitudes ; and as the land- 
owners preferred besides to live upon their property, 
Berne acquired many out-burghers, who added much to 
her strength. 

Soon after this epoch, Berchthold fell into a feud with 
the imperial house. The emperor Henry VI. died be- 
fore it was well finished. Many German princes now 
wished to place the crown upon the head of duke Berch- 
thold, partly moved by hatred to the house of Hohen- 

d 4 



40 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. M91 

staufen, which at that time sat upon the throne, and 
partly by respect to that of Zeeringen. A succession of 
five admirable princes had inspired a good opinion of 
this noble stem, which seemed exactly suited, by its 
wealth and power, to maintain the imperial rank in a dig- 
nified manner. Although, however, Berchthold loved, at 
ether times, to aggrandise his power by any means, some- 
times, indeed, more dexterously than honourably, yet 
he declined, with prudent modesty, this perilous eleva- 
tion ; and renounced a claim which, even with arms in 
his hands, he could not have well supported ; as he had 
reason to fear the worst from the disaffection of his 
Burgundian subjects, and had learned, by striking ex- 
amples, that their fidelity was not much to be depended 
upon in warfare. But, in any event, Berchthold could be 
but a powerless emperor, and accordingly preferred to be 
a powerful duke. For the renunciation of the throne, he 
received compensation from Philip the brother of the 
late emperor, and lived in peace thenceforwards with 
the imperial house of Hohenstaufen. Twenty years 
longer he administered his domains with uninterrupted 
prosperity and glory. He surpassed all the princes of 
the empire in wealth, in power, and in reputation ; and 
reigned a true father of his people, as well as a firm 
sovereign of his nobles. His arms were, in general, 
victorious; although, through the unfaithfulness of his 
armies, he experienced the mutability of fortune. He 
was the last of his race, his sons having died before 
him, and he followed them on the 14th of February, 
1218. 

It w T as probably not so much from love of freedom 
that the princes of the Zaeringen line took part with the 
towns and the people, as because they wished to triumph 
by the aid of the towns and the people over the power- 
ful disaffected nobility. This object being nearly ac- 
complished, the line became extinct, without having 
stained its reputation by completing its dominion over 
Helvetia through the subjection of the burghers and the 
peasantry. 



1218. 



FREE MEN OF SCHWVTZ. 



41 



Under the dynasty of Zaeringen, in the midst of so 
many bishops, counts, and burgher-corporations, the 
name of the free men of Schwytz was, for the first time, 
heard in a dispute about their boundaries with Einsied- 
len. These people had long lived in the enjoyment of 
tranquil happiness, subject to no one but to God and 
to the empire. They had hitherto attracted so little 
notice, that the monks of Einsiedlen were able to con- 
ceal their very existence from the emperor. Henry II 
had made a grant to these monks of the waste lands in 
their neighbourhood. The abbot claimed as much as 
he chose as waste and unenclosed land ; and accordingly 
included in his claim the pastures, hills, and plains, be- 
queathed to the men of Schwytz by their forefathers. 
The country people, however, neither yielded to the 
claims of the abbot, nor to the sentence of the em- 
peror, and maintained their rights so strenuously under 
Conrad III. of Hohenstaufen, that every effort employed 
against them was fruitless, and even outlawry and ban 
effected nothing. They maintained themselves by vi- 
gour and resolution in their possessions, which were 
finally secured to them by Frederick II., a better dis- 
posed or better informed emperor. 



42 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1218. 



CHAP. IV. 

TIMES OF RUDOLPH AND ALBERT OF HAPSBURG. 

1218—1308. 

BIRTH OF RUDOLPH OF HAPSBURG. HIS EARLY CONDUCT AND 

CHARACTER. INTERREGNUM IN THE EMPIRE. FIRST LEAGUE 

OF URI,SCHWYTZ, AND UNTERWALDEN WITH ZURICH. RUDOLPH 

SUPPORTS THE TOWNS, AND EMPLOYS THEIR ARMS AGAINST 

THE NOBLES. ACCEPTS THE VOGT-SHIP OF THE FOREST LANDS, 

AND THE MILITARY COMMAND OF ZURICH. CONCILIATES THE 

ABBOT OF ST. GALL, IN ORDER TO ATTACK THE BISHOP OF 

BASLE. ELECTED EMPEROR. PARTIAL CHANGE IN HIS 

CHARACTER. HIS FEUD WITH SAVOY. HIS FEUD WITH 

BERNE. HIS DEATH STATE OF THE EMPIRE. 

The same year which witnessed the extinction of the 
race of Zseringen saw, in the birth of count Rudolph 
of Hapsburg, the rise of a more illustrious dynasty. 
The family from which he sprung was ancient and 
powerful ; though Rudolph himself inherited from his 
father, Albert IV., who died in a crusade in 1240,, only 
a moderate portion of lands and subjects. Most part of 
the hereditary property of his house was in the hands 
of his maternal uncle. As landgrave of Alsace, and 
count of the Aargau, the power which Rudolph pos- 
sessed was, by the ancient love of freedom subsisting 
in the subject population, confined almost to the empty 
name of lord of the land. Rudolph took possession of 
this far from brilliant heritage with a temper of mind 
impatient of its trammels ; and was impelled to seek, 
by means of martial enterprise, a position more com- 
mensurate with his wishes. At this epoch he was a 
fiery youth of two and twenty, qualified, by the pre- 
possessing friendliness of his manners and address, to 
awaken confidence in the hearts of all around him. In 
every situation, oppressed w T ith the greatest cares and 



1254. 



THE INTERREGNUM. 



43 



anxieties, Rudolph remained tranquil and cheerful. His 
manners had the unconstrained simplicity and openness 
which characterise a truly great man. 

At first,, indeed, fired with impatience for higher for- 
tunes, Rudolph despised the paths of timid prudence ; 
and started, like a thoughtless, hot-headed youth in his 
career. This excessive eagerness rather impeded than 
aided his purposes. Before he had attained his fortieth 
year, he had drawn on himself the hatred of his father's 
relations, was disinherited by his uncle on the mother's 
side, and excommunicated more than once by the 
church. Afterwards, however, when such checks had 
taught him prudence, and he had learned to subdue his 
passions, his affairs took a better aspect. A memorable 
evidence, observes Muller, that fiery youths should 
not allow the vigour which resides in them to be re- 
laxed by disgust at the past errors of their youth, but 
should manfully struggle onwards in unshaken hope of 
better times. 

About this period (1254) the extinction of the im- 
perial house of Hohenstaufen took place ; and disorder 
reached a higher pitch in Germany than ever, as the 
empire remained long without a head. In these times, 
which were called the Interregnum, injustice and violence 
gained the upper hand in a frightful manner. The cor- 
poral right of the strongest, called faustrecht, was the 
only one which was held in any respect, and discord 
rent asunder the bonds of order and morality. The 
greater princes broke loose from their ties towards the 
empire, waged wars amongst themselves, and were in no 
haste to elect an emperor. The castles of the nobles, 
which still frown on every eminence, were just so many 
nests of birds of prey. Highway robbery was regarded 
as a knightly sport, an honourable source of gain, or an 
innocent amusement. Armed gangs lurked in every 
corner, ready to pounce upon travellers, to levy contri- 
butions on them, or rather to seize their whole property : 
— happy were those allowed to escape with bare life and 
freedom. 



44 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1250. 



• No German prince was willing to start as a candidate 
for the crown, which an Englishman, duke Richard of 
Cornwall, had shortly before actually bought of the 
archbishops of Cologne and Mentz and the rest of the 
electoral princes for a much larger amount of solid gold 
than it was worth. So low had the opinion of the im- 
perial dignity fallen, that it had now become an object 
of distrust or contempt. Every one chose rather to take 
advantage of the prevailing anarchy, in order, by oppres- 
sion of the feeble,, to promote his own personal aggran- 
disement, than to join in any effort for the general 
welfare. In circumstances like these, disorder neces- 
sarily increased daily ; acts of violence became more and 
more frequent, so that the greater and lesser princes and 
counts, prelates, knights, and towns, lived in perpetual 
and destructive feuds with each other ; the stronger fell 
on the weaker ; and the well-disposed and peaceable 
sighed with their whole soul for an emperor to protect 
and defend them. 

Shortly before this miserable epoch, in which Helvetia 
with the rest of the German empire was delivered over to 
every species of violence and injustice, the three districts 
of Uri, Schwytz, andUnterwalden, closed their first league 
for mutual aid and defence with Zurich. 

It would have been easy for count Rudolph to co- 
operate with the other nobility for the oppression of the 
towns and rural districts of Helvetia. But he possessed 
the rare faculty of extracting the best uses from all cir- 
cumstances amongst which he lived, and preferred to 
protect the citizens and country people against the vio- 
lence of the great, and of the wild robber chivalry. As 
military commandant of the town and country districts, 
by using the arms and treasures of the burghers, he un- 
dermined in succession each of his noble rivals, of whom 
many in birth and power were his equals, many his 
superiors. The imperial towns and free lands in Hel- 
vetia which would have found, but for Rudolph, no 
protection against injuries, threw themselves uncon- 
ditionally into his arms. The burghers, whose civic 



1257. 



RUDOLPH OF HAPSBURG. 



45 



rights and regulations had accustomed them more to 
order and obedience than the nobles, chained conquest, 
as it were, to the banners of Rudolph, through their dis- 
cipline, the main requisite to military success. Their 
industry and traffic furnished him with the means of 
protracting, without damage to himself, feuds which 
impoverished the nobility, and of winning superiority 
by delay ; and as he constantly displayed affability 
even towards the lowest, with all the other qualities 
which most adorn princes, the good fortune by which 
he never was forsaken won him the confidence and love 
of the whole people, while similar good fortune in others 
would only have awakened alarm and envy. 

Rudolph's grandfather, in 1210, had obtained for his 
house the vogt-ship, or office of imperial bailiff, over the 
three lands of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden. This 
vogt-ship was at that time felt as a burden by a free 
people; and it was only with reluctance that they yielded 
to necessity. Finally, in 1240, they were enabled to 
shake it off. In the Italian wars of Frederick II. a 
select band from the forest cantons served him with extra- 
ordinary courage and fidelity. Even excommunication, 
which terrified so many, could effect no alteration in their 
fearless adherence. In return, and as a token of his 
favour, Frederick relieved them from the vogt-ship of 
Hapsburg, and gave to each district a charter of enfran- 
chisement, importing that the men of Schwytz had of 
their own accord chosen the immediate protection of the 
emperor. But when this headless empire, in the years of 
the interregnum, was turned into a theatre of discord, 
and on every side was delivered up as a spoil to rapine 
and violence, these districts voluntarily renewed the 
abolished office in 1257^ in order to acquire in Ru- 
dolph of Hapsburg a powerful ally — a generally be- 
loved and brave leader. Shortly afterwards Zurich 
also conferred on him the office of her military pro- 
tector, which had already been refused by the arrogant 
baron Luthold of Regensberg, who, according to his own 
expression^ regarded the town as caught in a net, sur- 



46 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1266. 



rounded as it was by his castles. From 1266 to 1268 these 
fortresses of his were taken one by one by those burghers 
whose alliance he had repelled, led by the holder of that 
office which he had scornfully rejected. Utzenberg, a 
fortress of Luthold's ally, the count of Toggenburg, had 
the same fate, and the trade of Zurich nourished in 
greater security. 

Thus Rudolph supported the towns and rural dis- 
tricts, and employed their co-operation, in return, to 
break the force of his own personal antagonists. While 
his feud continued yet undecided with Regensberg and 
Toggenburg, and in order to meet with less divided 
forces the bishop of Basle, against whom he was also 
engaged in hostilities, he disarmed, by friendly surprise 
and cordial advances, abbot Berchthold of St. Gall, who 
was already preparing to take the field against him. The 
abbot now supported instead of opposing him : the town 
of Basle soon came to terms : the bishop also, after his 
lands had been laid waste, purchased peace. This was, 
however, not of long continuance : hostilities were re- 
newed upon the first pretence which offered ; and Rudolph 
again laid siege to the town in 1273, when the intelli- 
gence arrived that the electors assembled at Frankfort 
had chosen him for emperor, on the ground that he was 
one of the most upright in times of prevalent injustice. 
His election had been principally owing to the influence 
of Werner, archbishop of Mentz, who, on a journey 
several years before into Italy, had been treated in an 
uncommonly friendly manner by the pious count Ru- 
dolph of Hapsburg; and had said to him on taking leave 
that he only hoped to live long enough in some degree 
to repay his kindness. Now when, on the death of 
Richard of Cornwall, those princes who assumed to them- 
selves the right of election to the vacant throne were 
assembled for that purpose at Frankfort, he proposed to 
them the pious count of Hapsburg, as the worthiest 
possible object for their choice. The burggrave Fre- 
derick of Nuremberg, a near relation of Rudolph, echoed 
his praises ; and as most of the electors chanced to be 



1285. 



change in Rudolph's character. 47 



unmarried men, he hinted to them that Rudolph had six 
daughters' at their disposal in marriage. Upon this hint, 
the affair was arranged with marvellous celerity, and the 
election to the empire wore the air of a family compact. 
Basle opened her gates to the new emperor ; while the 
bishop, almost beside himself with rage and conster- 
nation, cried, Lord God ! set thyself fast upon thy throne, 
else surely will this Rudolph pluck thee down from it, 

Rudolph, however, was not to be dazzled by the bril- 
liance of his new elevation, as little souls are apt to be on 
less accessions of dignity. He preserved his affability, 
forgot not his old friends ; and it was long before " com- 
modity, the bias of the world," made him deviate from the 
wise moderation displayed in the first years of his govern- 
ment. He not only continued the chartered franchises of 
the imperial towns and territories in Switzerland, but also 
those of Lucerne, Soleure, Schaffhausen, Mulhausen, 
and others. He raised the abbot of Einsiedlen and the 
bishop of Lausanne to the dignity of princes of the em- 
pire. On the other hand, in recompense for his benefits, 
he enjoyed the firm adherence of the mass of the po- 
pulation. Auxiliaries from Switzerland distinguished 
themselves fighting at his side against the powerful king 
of Bohemia. The men of Zurich formed part of his 
body guard, and the treasures of the town supplied him 
with loans. 

But with the increase of the emperor's fortune some 
alteration took place, during the latter years of his go- 
vernment, in the uprightness of his character. Like 
most princes, whose thro.ae is not hereditary, he sought 
to aggrandise his house by every means during his life- 
time. Already, with the consent of the German princes, 
he had raised his sons, Rudolph and Albert, to the duke- 
doms of Swabia and of Austria. He next turned his 
views upon Helvetia, and commenced hostile measures 
against Berne and Savoy. Rudolph had conceived the 
idea of restoring the old kingdom of Burgundy, for the 
benefit of his favourite son Hartmann: this involved him 
in warfare with the house of Savoy, whose possessions 



48 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1.288. 



were put in jeopardy by his project. The emperor made 
two successful campaigns against this house ; but the 
object of his whole undertaking was frustrated by the 
early death of Hartmann, who was drowned in the 
Rhine. 

Not more fortunate in its issue was the feud of Ru- 
dolph with Berne, which he besieged with 15,000 men 
in 1288. He was soon, however, obliged to draw off 
his forces, as the military skill of those times could effect 
nothing against a town surrounded on three sides by a 
rapid stream, protected by steep banks and walls, and 
defended by stout burghers. An attempt to take the 
town by surprise in the following year was frustrated by 
the resolute self-devotion of the citizens, and the timely 
aid of Wale of Gruyeres. From this time forth the 
emperor ceased to meddle much with Helvetia ; and, 
three years afterwards, death put an end to his far-pro- 
spective purposes. Eighteen years after his accession to 
the throne, or, to use the expression ascribed to himself, 
ee after he had been raised from the hut of his father to 
the palace of the emperor," in the seventy-fourth year 
of his age, he fell ill on a journey to Spires, and died at 
the town of Germersheim, which he himself had founded. 
Except when the ambition to enlarge his domains misled 
him into abuse of his good fortune, his dealings had 
been mostly upright and equitable ; and so highly had 
his administration in civil affairs been popular, that his 
memory was long held in honour ; and " He has not 
Rudolph's plain dealing /" was a common saying in Ger- 
many. 

Although the restoration of peace in the empire pro- 
cured safety and protection for the upper ranks, yet the 
lower were still subjected to multiplied oppressions. In- 
numerable castles of barons, counts, and other nobles, 
were spread over the whole face of the country. With 
the increased taste for splendour, excited by attendance 
upon courts and tournaments, and with the discovery of 
new modes of luxury, new wants were created in pro- 
portion. These were supplied, in many cases, by rich 



1291. 



STATE OF THE EMPIRE. 



49 



revenues, water and land tolls, imposts and dues of dif- 
ferent kinds, which were paid by serfs and vassals, ground 
and quit rents, hens, eggs, &c. Others were not con- 
tented with hereditary possessions. The emperor Albert 
himself doubled the taxes in his domains ; and many 
powerful men did the same. Similar sources of revenue 
were enjoyed by the spiritual dignitaries and cloisters : 
all of these, the mendicant orders only excepted, pos- 
sessed sovereign power over their vassals. 

From this time forward many monasteries succeeded, 
fhrough papal or episcopal favour, in appropriating to 
themselves the tithes of churches and parishes: this was 
called incorporating ; and the only charge which lay upon 
the new tithe impropriators was the acquittal of certain 
very limited payments to the priests, with the additional 
obligation, in some cases, of repairing the church build- 
ings, and relieving the poor. Many nobles sought and 
found improvement of their fortunes in the holding of 
offices under lords spiritual or secular ; and there were 
others who, from this period till far into the following 
century, drove a regular trade of robbery in the neigh- 
bourhood of their strong-holds. They imposed contri- 
butions on their neighbours, waylaid passing tradesmen 
and travellers, sometimes took them prisoners, and com- 
pelled them to pay ransoms. 

Here and there bondsmen had succeeded in buying 
themselves free of their obligations, or in holding their 
lands as hereditary fiefs, in consideration of certain fixed 
annual payments. Freedmen of this kind, indeed, as 
yet were rare ; but out of them a new class of peasantry 
gradually formed itself; and those who had bought them- 
selves wholly free came at length to be ranked in the 
same line with the previously existing class of freemen. 

Heavy oppression, however, weighed on the great body 
of bondsmen. They were bound to an infinite number of 
services; chained to the glebe which they cultivated ; were 
not even allowed to marry without leave from their lords; 
and the children belonged to whatever master the parents 
had belonged to. On the death of a serf, a portion more 

E 



50 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 



1291. 



or less of his effects, such as his best head of cattle, his 
oest clothes or arms, were regularly claimed by the lord. 
Nevertheless the rights of the liege lord, as well as their 
practical exercise, exhibited considerable varieties. 

In the towns which exempted themselves by purchase 
from their dues and obligations towards their spiritual 
and temporal lords, or acquired extended franchises as a 
reward for services done to the latter, knowledge, and 
the arts of life diffused themselves. Since the close of 
the twelfth century, the language of the country was 
more and more employed in public transactions, and now 
began distinctly to assume that character from which 
the modern German has developed itself. Those who 
possessed superior knowledge were treated with respect ; 
poetry became a favourite occupation among the culti- 
vated part of the nobility, which formed in those times 
a larger proportion than in the subsequent centuries; 
and men of talent in the class of burghers united in the 
same study. These poets, who received the name of 
Minnesingers, selected the subjects of their verse from 
the more tender passions, and the pleasures or vicissitudes 
of life, and taught lessons of practical wisdom through 
the medium of examples and apologues. In the towns 
also, exclusively of the cloisters, schools were established, 
which, notwithstanding their deficiencies, could not fail 
to produce good effects. 

Through the unlimited power of the hierarchy, and 
notwithstanding the energetic resistance of several bi- 
shops and abbots, the opinion had been almost univer- 
sally diffused, that whatever the church, that is to say, 
the pope, erected as a rule of faith, must be received 
with implicit credence ; and that out of the pale of that 
church was no salvation. The conservation of what was 
called the true faith was entrusted to the order of Do- 
minicans. Imprisonment, torture, death at the stake, 
were the destiny of heretics. But as the human mind 
struggles with most vehemence under external pressure, 
independent opinions became too rife to be crushed by 
persecution : the effect of these was aided by the aban- 



1291. 



PAPAL ENCROACHMENTS. 



51 



doned lives of the clergy, of whom a large number were 
hated by the people. The monaster of Rutiy near Rap- 
persweil was pulled down, while yet unfinished, by the 
neighbouring peasantry ; and while, on the one hand, 
these foundations were enriched and multiplied, on the 
other they remained a constant mark for the rapacity of 
the more powerful nobles. The authority of the papal 
court itself often found in cloisters and monasteries the 
most determined resistance ; and the earliest energetic 
re-action against it was brought on by the unparalleled 
assumptions of Boniface VIII., the contemporary of Albert 
of Hapsburg. This prelate had explicitly advanced the 
doctrine, that all secular power was only held by princes in 
trust from the pope, and remained at his discretion and 
disposal. It was precisely this excess of oppression which, 
as commonly is the case, brought the world, by degrees to 
its senses. The papal bulls were powerless against Philip 
the Fair of France, although his character was by no 
means free from blame. The pope's inflexibility in this 
instance was of evil consequence only to himself ; and 
the power of princes, at least in temporal matters, be- 
came gradually placed on a firmer footing. 



e 2 



52 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1291. 



CHAP. V. 

2ERA OF HELVETIC EMANCIPATION. 

1308—1334. 

ALBERT OF HAPSBURG. AIMS AT ERECTING A DUKEDOM I> 

HELVETIA. TYRANNY OF GESSLER AND BERENGER. — -OATH 

OF RUTLI. WILLIAM TELL. — DEATH OF GESSLER. CAP- 
TURE OF ROTZBERG AND SARNEN. LEAGUE OF THE THREE 

F'JREST CANTONS. DEATH OF ALBERT OF HAPSBURG. — - 

CRUEL REVENGE FOR HIS MURDER. RECOGNITION OF SWISS 

FREEDOM. ' — INVASION OF SWITZERLAND BY DUKE LEOPOLD. 

BATTLE OF MORGARTEN. PERPETUAL CONFEDERACY OF 

THE FOREST CANTONS. SIX YEARS' TRUCE WITH AUSTRIA. 

SIEGE OF SOLEURE. MAGNANIMITY OF THE BESIEGED 

BURGHERS. RENEWAL OF THE TRUCE WITH AUSTRIA. 

RECEPTION OF LUCERNE IN THE CONFEDERACY. STATE OF 

INDUSTRY COMMERCE AND RELIGION. 

Albert, the eldest and sole surviving son of Rudolph 
of Hapsburg, the founder of the imperial house of 
Austria, united with undoubted bravery other respectable 
qualities. But he was hard, unfeeling, rapacious and 
unscrupulous in his views of aggrandisement. That 
cheerful adhesion and confidence which had attended 
his father's administration, and even the first years of 
his own, were soon succeeded by opposite feelings. He 
was feared by all, hated by many, loved by none, and 
the father's truest friends were speedily alienated by the 
son. No sooner had the men of Schwytz heard of his 
accession, than they hastened to renew their league of 
reciprocal protection. Albert was resolved to succeed to 
all the honours of Rudolph, during whose lifetime at- 
tempts had been made to secure the imperial crown for 
him. At that time the princes had the prudence to defer 
the nomination of an emperor. But on Rudolph's death 
Albert made so sure of the succession, that he seized on 
the imperial insignia without waiting for the decision of 
a diet. He now received the first proof of the disesteem 
in which he was held, by his claims being entirely over- 
looked in the election, which fell upon count Adolphus 
of Nassau. But the new emperor possessing neither 



1298. 



Albert's vogts. 



58 



power nor popularity, and having besides contrived to 
disoblige the archbishop of Mentz, whose influence had 
a principal share in raising him to the throne, he was 
very soon deposed from it, through the agency of that 
prelate, at a diet of the electors held in Mentz ; and 
Albert, who in the interim had conciliated their suf- 
frages, was raised to the imperial throne in his stead. 
This illegal act was shortly after ratified by the fortune 
of war ; and in a final throw for empire, poor Adolphus 
lost his crown and his life. 

Albert aimed at erecting a new dukedom in Helvetia, 
and at uniting all the scattered domains of his family 
by the acquisition of whatever lands of others lay be- 
tween them. He proposed to the free and contented 
inhabitants of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden, whose 
districts inconveniently separated his rich possessions, to 
exchange their direct dependence on the empire for the 
more powerful and permanent protection of the house of 
Austria. But the foresters viewed with fixed distrust 
the advances of their emperor ; they were perfectly well 
acquainted with the value of their own freedom, and 
were the less likely to barter it for Austrian protection, 
as they had long regarded with anxious apprehension 
the increasing power acquired by the house of Hapsburg. 
They accordingly made answer, that their only wish and 
prayer was, to be left in the condition of their forefathers. 
They begged that they might not be taken from under 
the guardianship of the empire, and subjected to that of 
any one prince in particular. Moreover, they demanded 
the appointment of imperial commissaries (landvogts or 
bailiffs), in order to be relieved from the administration 
of Albert's officers, whom he had set over them, con- 
trary to established rights and usages. Albert complied 
with this demand ; but, in order to disunite and harass 
them, he sent, instead of one vogt, two. These were, 
Hermann Gessler of Brauneck, and Berenger of Lan- 
denberg ; men of rude and imperious temper, who, as if 
their master's instructions were not arbitrary and large 
enough, interpreted them in the most extended sense, 

e S 



54 



H1ST0HY OF SWITZERLAND. 



and indulged their personal pride by a haughty deport- 
ment towards the people, who were wholly unaccustomed 
to such treatment. Remonstrances and complaints to 
the emperor only redoubled the wrongs complained of ; 
and these were barbed by insults more provoking than 
the wrongs themselves. Excessive tolls and duties, and 
unprecedented imposts for the maintenance of garrisons, 
formed an item in the list of grievances. Gessler built 
a fortress at the foot of the St. Gothard, which he inso- 
lently named Uri's Restraint. Landenberg went on with 
equal violence in Unterwalden, where Henry of Halden, 
an aged and zealous friend of freedom, lived in the 
Melchthal. Landenberg imposed the fine of a yoke 
of oxen on this man, for some slight, or pretended 
offence of his son, Arnold of the Melchthal. On his 
hesitating to give them up, Landenberg' s messenger 
sneeringly said, that if the boors wished to have bread 
to eat, they might draw the plough themselves. On 
hearing this, the young man Arnold, yielding to a fit 
of passion, broke one of the servant's fingers, and fled 
from the bailiff 's vengeance. Landenberg had the father 
of the fugitive arrested, and demanded to know his son's 
place of concealment. It was vain for the old man to 
protest ignorance — not only were his oxen seized, and 
a heavy fine imposed upon him, but his eyes were put out 
to expiate the venial act of his son. That puncture, says 
an old historian, went so deep into many a heart, that 
many resolved to die rather than leave it unrequited. 

Every act of Albert's vogts seemed purposely adapted 
either to crush all independence of feeling, or to provoke 
the people to some precipitate act of overt resistance. 
Those whom the vogts thought fit to regard as dan- 
gerous, were, in spite of the ancient popular franchises, 
sent to foreign prisons. At Altorf, Gessler caused a hat 
to be set upon a pole, as a symbol of the sovereign 
power of Austria, and ordered that all who passed by 
should uncover their heads, and bow before it. He 
taunted Werner StaufFacher, a freeman entitled to bear 
arms, at Steinen, in the district of Schwytz, " that he, a 



1307. 



OATH OF RUTLI. 



55 



vile peasant, should have huilt himself a new house, 
without asking permission of his liege lords." This man, 
who had the fortune to possess a wife of good under- 
standing, communicated by her advice with other men 
of like dispositions, who felt with pain equal to his own 
the daily aggravated oppressions borne by their country- 
men, as well as the affronts offered personally to them- 
selves. He selected for his first confidants, Waiter 
Furst of Uri, and the deeply aggrieved Arnold of the 
Melchthal. They bound themselves by oath to endure 
no longer the degrading wrongs inflicted on their coun- 
trymen, to restore their ancient freedom, and to league 
themselves for that purpose with other men deserving 
of their confidence ; above all, to expel the domineering 
vogts, but without throwing off their allegiance to the 
emperor and the empire. 

When one and the same resentment of injustice is 
extended over whole tracts of country, the communi- 
cations of resolute men are sure to be met speedily by 
individual confidence and adhesion. Each of the sworn 
confederates chose confidants. They were wont to as- 
semble, at first accompanied only by few, in the dead of 
night, at Rutli, a meadow slope under the Seelisberg by 
the lake of Uri, to consult for the salvation of their 
country, and to give and receive intelligence of the pro- 
gress of their efforts, and the friends who had been won 
to their cause. At length on Martinmas-eve (11th 
November), 1307., Walter Furst, Werner StaufFacher, 
and Arnold of the Melchthal, each brought to the ac- 
customed place of rendezvous ten trusty companions, to 
whom they had confided their enterprise. These three- 
and thirty clasped each other's hands, and took a solemn 
engagement that no one would ever desert the rest, and 
that all would devote their united strength to restore 
their invaded franchises, without, however, despoiling 
others of their goods, their rights, or their lives. At 
the moment when the beams of morning struck the 
neighbouring Alps, and seemed as signal-fires to light 
them on their enterprisej the three leaders raised their 

e 4 



56 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1307. 



hands with their comrades, and swore a league by that 
God who fashioned all men for equal freedom. The 
men of Schwytz and Uri wished to proceed to the imme- 
diate execution of their project ; but those of Unter- 
walden, who did not feel assured that they could take 
easy possession of the fortresses, advised delay, and 
their reasons found acquiescence. 

Soon after occurred the famous episode of William 
Tell *, momentous to the main plot in its issue. This 
man, who was one of the sworn at Rutli, and noted for 
his high and daring spirit, exposed himself to arrest by 
Gessler's myrmidons, for passing the hat without making 
obeisance. Whispers of conspiracy had already reached 
the vogt, and he expected to extract some farther 
evidence from Tell on the subject. Offended by the 
man's obstinate silence, he gave loose to his tyrannical 
humour, and knowing that Tell was a good archer, 
commanded him to shoot from a great distance at an 
apple on the head of his child. God, says an old 
chronicler, was with him ; and the vogt, who had not 
expected such a specimen of skill and fortune, now cast 
about for new ways to entrap the object of his malice ; 
and, seeing a second arrow in his quiver, asked him 
what that was for ? Tell replied, evasively, that such 
was the usual practice of archers. Not content with 
this reply, the vogt pressed on him farther, and assured 
him of his life, whatever the arrow might have been 
meant for. eC Vogt/' said Tell, " had I shot my child, 
the second shaft was for thee ; and be sure I should 
not have missed my mark a second time ! " Transported 
with rage not unmixed with terror, Gessler exclaimed, 
" Tell ! I have promised thee life, but thou shalt pass 
it in a dungeon." Accordingly, he took boat with his 
captive, intending to transport him across the lake to 
Kussnacht in Schwytz, in defiance of the common right 
of the district, which provided that its natives should 
not be kept in confinement beyond its borders. A 
sudden storm on the lake overtook the party ; and Gess- 

* See the Appendix. 



1308. 



WILLIAM TELL. 



57 



ler was obliged to give orders to loose Tell from his 
fetters, and commit the helm to his hands, as he was 
known for a skilful steersman. Tell guided the vessel 
to the foot of the great Axenberg, where a ledge of 
rock, distinguished to the present day as T ell's platform, 
presented itself as the only possible landing-place for 
leagues around. Here he seized his cross-bow, and 
escaped by a daring leap, leaving the skiff to wrestle its 
way in the billows. The vogt also escaped the storm, 
but only to meet a fate more signal from T ell's bow in 
the narrow pass near Kussnacht. The tidings of his 
death enhanced the courage of the people, but also 
alarmed the vigilance of their rulers, and greatly in- 
creased the dangers of the conspirators, who kept quiet. 
These occurrences marked the close of 1307* 

On new year's eve, 1308, the conspirators obtained 
possession of the castle of Rotzberg in Nidwalden. A 
girl had drawn one of them, who was her lover, up at 
midnight, by a rope, into the castle ; by his assistance 
twenty more were introduced in the same manner, and 
the garrison, thus surprised, was overpowered without 
difficulty. With morning-dawn, twenty men of Ober- 
walden went with new year's presents to the castle at 
Sarnen. Berenger, who was coming out to church, let 
them enter the gates without hinderance, seeing them 
unarmed. Whereupon they fixed on their staves the 
pike-heads which they had carried concealed, and blew 
the agreed signal-note on their horns to thirty others, 
who lay in ambush and armed in the neighbouring 
alders. These hastened up, and this formidable strong- 
hold was thus captured almost without resistance. The 
garrison was dismissed free, on taking a solemn engage- 
ment not to revenge the past, and not to overstep their 
assigned limits. The triumphant people now demolished 
several other fortresses, amongst the rest, the unhappy 
Gessler's yet unfinished Restraint of Uri. The nobles 
gladly joined the league of freemen and vassals, as they 
preferred sharing their freedom, to becoming slaves 
along with them ; and on the following Sunday the 



68 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAXD- 



1308. 



three lands engaged themselves reciprocally through 
their envoys in the terms of the same oath which had 
been taken at Rutli. But, as generally happens to the 
founders of great changes, they were far from forming 
an adequate idea of what they had done. 

Albert, whose unquiet and grasping policy was con- 
tinually provoking fresh enemies, had just seen his 
project of annexing Bohemia to his family domains 
frustrated, and in Thuringia his Swabian troops had 
suffered a severe defeat. He heard with great indigna- 
tion the revolt of the forest cantons ; but he wished 
first to finish another feud which he had begun, with 
slight pretence of right, against Otho of Granson, bishop 
of Basle, and accordingly laid siege to his castle of 
Furstenstein. At the same time, he forbade the inha- 
bitants of Lucerne, Zug, and the rest of his subjects on 
the frontiers, all intercourse with the forest cantons, and 
excluded the latter from entrance into the markets of 
the former. 

Duke John, son of the late duke Rudolph, who had 
already reached his twentieth year, and saw the sons of 
the emperor enjoying high consideration and dignities, 
had often begged the emperor, his uncle, to make over 
to him his father's domains, or a part of them. But 
the emperor put him off, and on the renewal of his 
entreaties, is said to have reached him a coronet which 
he had made of a broken twig, with the words, that this 
would become him better than ruling lands and people. 
The insulted youth knew that this refusal of the em- 
peror was displeasing to both spiritual and temporal 
lords ; he knew the hatred felt for Albert by the nobility 
of the Thurgau and the Aargau (districts upon which 
he himself had claims), and he also knew their favour- 
able dispositions towards his own person. He seized 
the opportunity of the emperor's return, on the 1st of 
May, 1308, to Rheinfelden from his castle at Baden, 
where he had held a consultation with his intimate 
advisers on his enterprise against the three cantons ; and 
just as Albert had crossed the Reuss at Windisch^ and 



1308. 



DEATH OF ALBERT. 



59 



was separated from the rest of his suite for a moment, 
duke John, barjn Walter of Esehenbach, and Rudolph 
of Balm fell upon him and murdered him in the face 
of open day, and left him to die in the lap of a poor 
woman on the spot. Terror and astonishment filled the 
whole land. The inhabitants of Zurich shook the dust 
from their gates, which had not been closed for thirty- 
years previously. It was dreaded by the emperor's 
adherents that an extensive league had been formed 
against his house. On the other hand, the blinded 
assassins, after the deed was perpetrated, found out for 
the first time their want of support from any quarter, 
and now only endeavoured to save their lives by a 
rapid flight. Elizabeth, the widow of the emperor, 
came to a compromise with the bishop of Basle, and 
issued warnings to the towns and villages not to give 
harbour or concealment to the murderers. Hostile 
preparations were not only suspended with regard to 
the three cantons, but intercourse and transport of 
goods were thrown open again between them and the 
territories of Austria, and advances made to a friendly 
understanding. They who only sought to maintain 
their old rights, and their immediate connection with 
the empire, behaved themselves throughout with moder- 
ation and equity. 

For some time after Albert's death, the house of 
Austria directed its whole efforts to secure the imperial 
crown, for his eldest son Frederick. It was not until 
this scheme had failed of success with the German 
princes, who hated the whole family for Albert's sake, 
that the Austrians turned their thoughts to the execution 
of that revenge which they had resolved upon against 
that prince's murderers. The ban of the empire was 
pronounced upon them by the new emperor, Henry VII.; 
and as the murderers themselves were not to be 
found, their innocent relatives, friends, servants, and 
subjects were, with inhuman cruelty, hunted down and 
extirpated by the family of Albert. The principal 
promoter of these horrors was Agnes, queen of Hun- 



60 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



gary, the late emperor's daughter, a woman unacquainted 
with the milder feelings of piety, but addicted to a cer- 
tain sort of devotional habits and practices, by no means 
inconsistent with implacable vindictiveness. In grati- 
fying this passion she forgot all female dignity ; and 
is even said to have waded in the blood of three and 
sixty innocent sufferers, with the exulting exclamation, 
u This day we bathe in May-dew \ " Not till numerous 
castles had been dismantled, the whole resources of 
multitudes annihilated, and more than a thousand in- 
nocent persons, men, women, and children, had perished 
by the hand of the executioner, was an end put to this 
series of horrors, by which indeed the wealth of the 
house of Austria was increased, but by which at the 
same time it had provoked so many enemies, that the 
consequences of these events contributed not a little to 
frustrate its designs against the freedom of Helvetia. 

The emperor, Henry VII., who had testified his 
favour to the Austrians by the outlawry of the regicides, 
gave evidence, on the other hand, of his gracious 
dispositions towards the forest cantons, by recognising 
their freedom and independence on any power but that 
of the empire. The Austrian princes were highly dis- 
pleased by this step ; but being occupied with their 
bloody revenge for the murder of their late chief, they 
were obliged to suppress their anger for a season. The 
emperor imagined he had tranquillised Helvetia ; but 
he had no sooner set out on an Italian expedition, than 
open hostilities broke out between the forest cantons 
and the subjects of Austria. These disturbances might 
probably have proved of no great consequence, if the 
emperor had not met his death in Italy. For the mo- 
ment, indeed, another direction was given by that event 
to the ambition of the Austrian family, which now ex- 
erted every means in its power, for the second time, to 
secure the crown for Frederick, but in vain. A ma- 
jority of the electoral princes, still averse to that house, 
declared themselves for duke Louis of Bavaria. The 
latter candidate likewise enjoyed the adherence of the 



1315. LEOPOLD INVADES SWITZERLAND. Cl 

forest cantons, who had excellent reasons for wishing 
to see the imperial power in any hands rather than in 
those of a duke of Austria. This election contest proved 
the occasion of a furious war in Germany and Helvetia. 
In the latter country the old dispute about boundaries 
was revived between Einsiedlen and Schwytz, and was 
carried on by both sides with excessive heat and violence. 
Frederick, whose house had been invested with the pro- 
tectoral rights of kast-vogt * over Einsiedlen^, used this dis- 
pute as a pretext to attack the forest cantons; and though 
Schwytz alone had offended in the matter, lanched 
the imperial ban against all three. Louis again absolved 
them from the sentence. On the other hand, duke 
Leopold prepared his whole powers at once to wreak 
the hereditary hatred of his family,, — to protect the 
(alleged) rights of so renowned a religious foundation, • 
and to revenge upon the forest cantons the slighted 
claims of his brother. He threatened to tread the boors 
under his feet, and carried with him waggons full of 
cordage wherewith to bind or hang up their ringleaders. 
He marched in person to Baden, where he held a council 
of war. A triple attack on the same day was resolved 
upon. The main body, 15,000 or 20,000 strong, was 
to advance from Zug under Leopold himself; count 
Otho of Strasburg, wdth 4000 men, were to march 
over the Briinig ; 1000 Lucerners to cross the lake 
and fall in with the other forces at Stanzstadt in Unter- 
walden. The main army arrived at Zug in two di- 
visions. Heavy-armed cavalry, then the pride and 
strength of armies, led the van in large troops, without 
sufficient discrimination of the mode of warfare de- 
manded by the nature of the country. The flow r er of 
the nobility of Hapsburg w T as in this army, amongst 
others the ex-vogt Berenger of Landenberg, and Gess- 
ler's relations. Fifty burghers of Zurich also, all in 
uniform clothing, marched along with it, according to 
treaty. The duke himself, a tall majestic figure, pre- 
senting the very ideal of chivalrous heroism, rode in 

* For an explanation cf this title, turn to the foregoing chapter. 



62 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 



1315. 



the front of his warriors, confident of victory ; and 
dreamed not of the wonders which a people urged to 
extremities can achieve in the defence of its free- 
dom. 

The Schwytzers, whom the main attack threatened, 
were so far from being intimidated by it, that they scorn- 
fully rejected a dishonourable peace. On receiving rein- 
forcements of 400 men from Uri, and 300 more from 
Unterwalden, they offered up their prayers to God, their 
only Lord and Master, according to ancient usage in 
the forest cantons, and stationed themselves, 1300 in 
number, on the ridge of the Sattel. An old man, Ru- 
dolph Reding of Bibereck, infirm in body, but listened 
to respectfully by the people for his military talents and 
experience, had given them the wise advice to take this 
• position. If the narratives of several historians are to 
be trusted, Reding' s advice was grounded on a specific 
warning received from Henry of Hiinenburg, an Aus- 
trian noble, who had shot into the Swiss outposts an 
arrow with a label bearing the inscription, " Beware of 
Morgarten ! " and had thus given them previous inform- 
ation of Leopold's plans, whether moved by love of 
freedom, or by natural compassion for the imminent de- 
struction of so many brave men. On the eve of the battle 
fifty men appeared before the lines of the Schwytzers. 
These had been banished their country during the former 
times of disturbance; but as soon as they were ac- 
quainted with its danger, they resolved, by joining the 
combatants for freedom, to become once more worthy of 
the land they had lost. The forest cantons, however, 
would not admit them within their frontiers, nor receive 
them in the ranks of their combatants. Nevertheless 
they remained true to their purpose. They stationed 
themselves just beyond the frontiers on an eminence 
above Morgarten, and prepared to act their part in the 
reception of the enemy. 

On the 15 th November, 1315, with the first dawn of 
day, the Austrian troops made their appearance. The 
helmets and cuirasses of the knights gleamed in the sun- 



1315. 



BATTLE OF MORGARTEN. 



63 



shine. As far as the eye could reach glittered the spears 
of the first army which had ever been drawn out against 
the forest cantons ; and the Swiss may be supposed to 
have contemplated so novel a phenomenon with emotion. 
The narrow way between the ridge of Morgarten and 
the lake was soon crowded with the close column of 
horsemen. This was the instant chosen by the fifty Swiss 
exiles, who had collected fragments of rocks and trunks of 
trees during the night, and now hurled them on the enemy 
from their height, crushing horse and man. A mode of 
attack so startling produced terrible disorder. The 
horses became restive, reared, threw their riders, broke 
the ranks, and many of them plunged into the lake. 
The Swiss troops on the Sattel took advantage of this 
moment of panic. They rushed down hill in tolerable 
order, fell on the enemy's flank, struck down the heavy- 
armed knights by the vigorous use of their clubs and 
halberts, and completed the confusion of the Austrians, 
whom the slippery state of the half-frozen road rendered 
yet more helpless, and unfit for making any defence. 
The knights attempted to fall back on the infantry, and 
to gain room ; but the latter had not space to open their 
files. Many of them consequently were trodden down 
by the cavalry — many cut to pieces by the confederates 
— no prisoners made — no quarter given. The Austrians 
lost the flower of their nobility ; and amongst them fell 
two Gesslers, with the ex-tyrant Landenberg. The 
infantry suffered even more severely, as the narrowness 
of the defile afforded no room for their evolutions. 
After a slight resistance, the whole mass was dispersed 
in disorderly flight. The fifty men of Zurich alone, 
with those of Zug, had fought bravely ; and were slain 
man by man upon the spot where they had stood. The 
whole affair was terminated by nine o'clock a. m. ; and 
thus the Schwytzers won a complete victory in the 
space of an hour and a half, through the courage and 
dexterity with which they took advantage of the nature 
of the ground, and of the injudicious confidence of their 
enemy. Leopold's adherents had with difficulty succeeded 



64 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1315. 



in saving the duke's person from the horcors of the 
fight. 

On the following morning count Otho of Strasburg 
marched, with several thousand troops, over the Briinig 
on Obwalden, in concert with 1300 men of Lucerne, 
who landed at Burgenstadt. These were met by the 
victorious men of Unterwalden, reinforced by 100 fresh 
volunteers, and were forced back on their ships with great 
loss. Strasburg's troops also, struck with panic, took to 
flight on all sides, leaving their baggage behind them. 

It was easy to foresee that no permanent tranquillity 
would be procured to the three cantons by their victory : 
they were therefore obliged to study means of rallying 
their forces for the farther prosecution of the conflict ; 
and the most effectual seemed to be a permanent con- 
federacy. On the 13th of December, 1315, the envoys of 
the forest cantons held a meeting at Brunen, to conclude 
a perpetual league of self-defence against all internal and 
external enemies — a league, to use the words of the great 
annalist of Switzerland*, distinguished from most poli- 
tical arrangements and alliances, by extreme simplicity 
and innocence ; — by seeking, not the attainment of in- 
terested or ambitious ends, but the welfare of the public 
alone, and the preservation of freedom, justice, and 
peace ; and, finally, by calling a federal state into exist- 
ence, which resisted the assaults of time during so long 
a period, only because it was not grounded, like other 
federal unions of that century, merely on commercial 
connections, but on the maintenance of the holiest rights 
of humanity — a noble end, extorting respect even from 
the most rapacious neighbours, until at length the hour 
arrived (that of the French revolution), destined to 
establish a new order in the world, to separate the dur- 
able from the decayed and obsolete social elements, to 
bring about the destruction of much evil, the continuance, 
or at least the regeneration, of much good. This league 
was long the only bond and law of the confederacy ; but 

* J. von Muller. 



1318. 



SIEGE OF SOLEURE. 



65 



before the close of the sixteenth century, a Frenchman 
found occasion to write — c( Laocata sunt invicti ittius 
foederis vinculo, negligentid reipublicce. It was about 
this time that the name of Swiss came first into use with 
their neighbours, as a general designation for the mem- 
bers of the confederacy, which may be accounted for by 
the chief part having been acted by the Schwytzers, in 
the feud with Einsiedlen, and the battle of Morgarten. 

On the 19 th of June, 1318, a peace, or rather truce for 
a year, on equitable terms, was concluded between 
Austria and the confederates, which was afterwards pro- 
longed to six years. By the terms of this armistice the 
freedom of the confederates received fresh confirmation : 
on the other hand, they bound themselves to enforce 
within their territories the payment of all revenues be- 
longing to the duchy of Austria. In the mean time, 
notwithstanding the external show of repose, frequent 
occasions of offence kept up the old grudge on both 
sides. 

The dukes, after the ill success of their arms against 
the confederates, turned them next against the other 
adherents of Louis. Duke Leopold laid siege, with a 
strong body of men, for ten weeks, to the town of So- 
leure, which espoused the Bavarian interest. With the 
aid of the Bernese, however, the town was so well de- 
fended, that he sought in vain to force it to capitulate, 
and equally in vain endeavoured to terrify its com- 
mandant, count Hugo of Bucheck, by threatening him, 
unless he would surrender the town, with the death of 
his eldest son, who was a prisoner. Father and son alike 
despised the menace. Another proof of no less mag- 
nanimity, the more deserving remark, as it occurred in 
an age when all extremities were looked upon as allow- 
able against an enemy, was given to duke Leopold in the 
course of this siege. He had caused a bridge to be 
thrown across the Aar, above Soleure, in order to cut 
off supplies from the town, as well as to keep up com- 
munication between the divisions of his army upon both 
sides of the river. This structure was, however, soon 

p 



66 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1318. 



in danger from the force of the stream, which heavy 
rains had swelled to an unusual height. In this 
emergency, Leopold had it loaded with stones, and 
posted a body of troops upon it ; hut the bridge, unable 
to bear the double weight, gave way, and Leopold's sol- 
diers were plunged into the rapid stream below. At 
such a moment the men of Soleure regarded them not 
as enemies, but as fellow-men, in need of assistance. 
They threw themselves into the river, at great risk to 
themselves, and not only rescued their foes from death, 
but cherished and restored them in the town, and sent 
them back to the camp without exacting ransom. This 
trait of generosity touched the prince, who was far from 
being destitute of that quality. Moreover, he had small 
remaining hope of success, and was no longer disposed 
to contend in arms where he had already been overcome 
in magnanimity. He requested entrance into the town, 
with a train of thirty knights only ; made a present to 
the burghers of a banner ; and concluded with them an 
honourable peace. 

The treaty betwixt Austria and the confederates had 
lasted about six years, when Louis summoned the 
Schwytzers, in 1323, to aid in the war of the empire 
against Austria. In this, as in its former contests, the 
latter power was unsuccessful ; and duke Leopold's life 
is supposed to have been shortened by disappointment. 
In 1326, the armistice with Switzerland was renewed 
by his brother and successor, duke Albert. In the 
same year the forest cantons, which adhered with re- 
markable loyalty to the emperor, followed him in an 
expedition to Italy. Excommunicated on that ac- 
count in 1328, they knew, as they had known before, 
how to reduce to nothing the force of that so much 
dreaded sentence, by setting the alternative before their 
priests, of doing their duty, or of leaving the country. 
Against such determined resolution, pope John XXI. 
felt himself powerless, and said of the clergy who chose 
to remain in the country, that their conduct was un- 
righteous, but prudent. In fact, the pope had never 



1832. 



ARMISTICE WITH AUSTRIA. 



67 



any power against the people, but only against princes 
whom he robbed of the people's fidelity. The cantons 
were in such high esteem with the emperor, on account 
of their unvarying attachment, that in 131 6, an impe- 
rial decree annihilated all the rights of Austria in their 
territory. 

In 1332 the forest cantons admitted a fourth member 
to partake in their perpetual union. W e have already 
seen that the town of Lucerne, in the reign of the em- 
peror Rudolph, had come, by an iniquitous purchase, 
under the power of Austria. It was only the most 
flattering promises which induced the town to subject 
itself to the new domination ; but no long time had 
elapsed before these promises were forgotten, and the 
Austrians began to encroach beyond their just rights. 
However discontentedly this was seen by the burghers, 
they nevertheless bore it with patience, nay, exerted 
themselves actively in the cause of the house of Austria, 
and in the wars against the forest cantons suffered ex- 
tensive losses. By way of showing gratitude for these 
services, the dukes withheld the subsidies which had 
been promised to the town, and forced upon it depre- 
ciated coins, and augmented imposts. An opinion had, 
however, gained ascendency, that even the power of 
princes had its limits, and that the chartered rights of 
freemen must not be sacrificed entirely to these earthly 
divinities. The burghers therefore assembled, and con- 
cluded a twenty years' peace with the confederates. The 
nobles opposed a violent resistance to the measure, of 
which the only result was, that a second popular meeting 
closed an everlasting league with the forest cantons. 

The men of Lucerne, however, like their confederates, 
were forced to pay the price of freedom in blood. A 
treacherous attempt of the Argovian nobility, whose 
property lay within the Austrian territory, and who 
first had recourse to open war, but in vain, was fortu- 
nately frustrated by the steadiness of the burghers ; and 
an armistice at length took place, by the emperor's me- 
diation^ between Austria and the forest cantons^, by the 

f 2 



68 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 



183%. 



terms of which Lucerne preserved its league with the 
three others, with reservation of the rights and dues of 
Austria. 

Notwithstanding all the feuds and disturbances, which 
crowded upon each other during so short a time, pros- 
perity made progress in the land. Towns and convents 
vied with each other in diffusing cultivation even 
throughout the wildest mountainous regions. Consider- 
able commercial intercourse also w r as maintained with 
Italy, Germany, France, and Flanders. Zurich and St. 
Gall possessed linen and silk manufactures ; the pasture 
lands produced hides, wool, cheese, and butter ; in Berne 
and Freyburg, cloth-maldng and dyeing establishments 
flourished ; the western districts traded in iron, horses, 
hawks, and horned cattle ; Geneva in southern fruits and 
spices. The trade in gold was prohibited, and that of 
silver restricted. 

Religion still appeared in all its primitive simplicity. 
Wealthy knights still knew no better method of per- 
petuating their memory in the land than through the 
medium of bequests for the foundation of cloisters. 
The respect in which the monks were held, however, 
already began to decline, by reason of their flagrant 
violations of the rules of their order, in spite of frequent 
attempts at reformation of their discipline. Accordingly, 
no fault was found with the conduct of the forest cantons,, 
who, when under excommunication, as we have seen, in 
1328 left their priests free to perform divine service or 
quit the country. No fault was found with the clergy for 
accepting the former alternative. Again, it was heard 
without disapprobation that the men of Basle had 
seized on a distinguished papal legate, who had dared 
to affix to the walls of their church the bull of excom- 
munication against the emperor Louis, and had drowned 
him in the Rhine. Such violent acts were perfectly in 
the spirit of the times. The Zurichers cared so little 
for the bulls of the pope, that in 1331 they drove the 
clergy out of their town for obeying them ; and foi 
eighteen years there was no divine service in Zurich, 



1332. 



STATE OF SWITZERLAND. 



69 



except such as was rendered by the bare-footed friars. 
The whole population often resisted ecclesiastical or- 
dinances., when they ran against their old traditional 
usages., and detected with instinctive sagacity whatever 
was indifferent or useless in them. Such was in those 
times the state of Switzerland, which contained sufficient 
elements of those great changes which we shall pre- 
sently see effected in its polity. 



CHAP. VI. 

FROM THE REVOLUTION OF ZURICH TO THE LEAGUE 
WITH APPENZELL. 

1335—1412, 

SITUATION OF ZURICH. CHARACTER OF THE BURGHERS. 

FORM OF GOVERNMENT. RUDOLPH ERUN. EXCITES A 

REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT. ELECTED BURGOMASTER FOR 

LIFE. DEFEATS A CONSPIRACY OF THE NOBLES. - — APPLIES 

FOR AID TO THE FOREST CANTONS AGAINST DUKE ALBERT OF 

AUSTRIA. ■ THE LATTER BESIEGES ZURICH. IS COMPELLED 

TO RAISE THE SIEGE. LEAGUE OF THE EIGHT ORIGINAL 

TOWNS AND LANDS OF THE CONFEDERACY. PEACE OF THOR- 

BERG. CHARACTER OF RUDOLPH ERUN. HIS TREACHEROUS 

COMPACT WITH AUSTRIA. BERNE. DISTINGUISHED FOR A 

SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE. OBNOXIOUS TO THE BORDERING NO- 
BILITY. — ATTACKED BY THE COMBINED FORCE OF THE NOBLES 

AND THE EMPEROR. BATTLE OF LAUPEN. BERNe's PLANS 

OF AGGRANDISEMENT. ROGER MANESSe's WISE ADMINISTRA- 
TION OF ZURICH. DECLINE OF THE NOBILITY AND CLERGY. 

BERNE AND SOLEURE DEFEAT THE COUNT OF KYBURG. DUKE 

LEOPOLD OF AUSTRIA ENTERS SWITZERLAND. EATTLE OF 

SEMPACH. ARNOLD OF WINKELRIED. THE BAD PEACE. 

UNEXPECTED INROAD OF THE A USTRIANS. BATTLE OF NAEFELS. 

- — DESCRIPTION OF RHJETIA. THE MEN OF APPENZELL 

REVOLT FROM THE ABBOT OF ST. GALL. ARE REINFORCED 

BY THE SCHWYTZERS. - — ENGAGE AN AUSTRIAN ARMY AT THE 

STOSS. — AGAIN AT THE WOLFSHALD. DEFEATED AT BRE- 

GENZ. RECEIVED AS ALLIES OF THE CONFEDERACY. RE- 
NEWAL OF THE TWENTY YEARS' TRUCE WITH AUSTRIA. 

On the pleasant site of the old Helvetian Thuricum 
stood the town of Zurich,, long renowned for industry, 

F 3 



?0 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1335. 

intelligence, wealth not too unequally distributed, and 
genuine civic spirit in its burghers. A general and con- 
stant love of the laws had, for ages, been the chief 
support of their government. The cordial and familiar 
usages handed down from their forefathers did not easily 
admit of innovation, and these usages, as in free states 
they ought to be, were uniform and simple for all. The 
citizens retained their family names, even after they had 
acquired lands and lordships, and never became ashamed 
of their original vocations. The confluence of foreigners, 
and the general easy condition of the inhabitants, con- 
tributed to the flourishing appearance of the town. Nor 
were science and art strangers in Zurich. The renowned 
songsters of those times, the Minnesingers, found hos- 
pitable welcome with the principal burghers. Nowhere 
more effect was produced than at Zurich by the doctrines 
(enlightened for those times) of Arnold of Brescia, a 
scholar of Abelard, and one of the most acute and en- 
quiring spirits of his age. He gained there many adherents 
to those principles of resistance against clerical and papal 
usurpation, the expression of which be expiated after- 
wards at the stake. We have already seen, that even 
papal interdicts neither frightened nor subdued the men 
of Zurich. They often enacted laws which seemed 
oppressive to the clergy, who were placed by them on a 
footing of equality with other classes, and forced to bear 
their share of contributions to the public burdens. 
They resented with indomitable spirit the aggressions 
and affronts of the nobles, and repaid them by the cap- 
ture and destruction of their strong-holds. Thus, Zurich 
enforced respect for herself from the proudest of her 
neighbours, and formed alliance with every free town 
from the Main to the St. Gothard. Yet, with a popula- 
tion exceeding 12,000, and consisting, for the most part, 
of free burghers, the town possessed hitherto no domain 
without its walls, except the forest on the banks of the 
Sihl. 

The supreme powers of the state were vested, practi- 
cally, in the council, a body consisting of twelve knights 



1335. 



RUDOLPH BRUN. 



71 



and twenty-four burghers, who exercised those powers 
by rotation, a third part of them holding office during 
four months, wielding, independently of the remaining 
two thirds of its members, the whole executive functions 
of the commonwealth : powers rendered in some mea- 
sure dictatorial and discretionary by the provision that, 
in unforeseen cases, they should act for the public in- 
terest, according to their best judgment. Thus the 
whole affairs of the state came by degrees under the 
management of a few influential families, principally 
attached to the pursuits of war and chivalry. The body 
of the citizens, the bold and intelligent traders and 
handicraftsmen, became tired, at length, of subordination 
to these dignitaries, especially as many practical griev- 
ances were complained of in their administration. It 
was said they took no care but for themselves, and those 
who belonged to them ; gave no reckoning of the moneys 
of the town, received the inferior burghers with intoler- 
able haughtiness ; proceeded, in short, in all respects in 
an arbitrary manner. Discontent, for a while, exhaled 
in murmurs, till a member of the obnoxious body itself 
came forward, and made common cause with the dis- 
affected burghers. This was Rudolph Brun, a man of 
noble birth and large fortune, a knight, and a member 
of council, who possessed precisely the qualities indis- 
pensable for a popular leader. His condescending 
familiarity made him a favourite of the common people, 
and he had skill to take advantage of every circumstance 
which offered, and to veil revenge or ambition under the 
aspect of true patriotism. That the cause which Brun 
espoused was good, is manifested by the warm partici- 
pation of such men as Roger Manesse — that his heart 
was bad, has been probably inferred from the tenour of 
his public life. Revolutions would too often find but 
little favour in history, if their justification depended on 
the characters of their leaders. 

Independence of feeling had planted itself amongst 
the burghers of Zurich, with the increase of their wealth 

f 4? 



72 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1335. 



and their knowledge, and prompted them to express more 
and more loudly their desire to be united in political 
guilds or companies. They listened, therefore, with 
open ears to Brun's representations that their rulers 
disregarded their duty, and were reducing the town, 
originally free, beneath the yoke of an intolerable 
tyranny ; that he himself was hated by the council, be- 
cause love to his fellow-citizens ever prompted him to 
lift his voice against these abuses ; that the burghers 
could only free themselves by exerting their own strength, 
and that for his part he was ready to sacrifice life and 
estate in their service. His adherents increased daily in 
number. Many good and honourable men joined his 
party, who perceived the pressing need of a reformation 
in the state ; many who might have been ill used by a 
member of the council, or condemned by a judicial sen- 
tence, which was alleged of Brun himself ; there were 
many in whose cases legal judgments had been given 
unfavourably, and, therefore, as to them, it would seem 
unjustly ; many whom the subversion of the existing 
order might flatter with the hope of personal benefit, the 
re-establishment of a ruined, or the foundation of a new 
fortune ; many, in fine, whom levity, a bold and lively 
temper, or a reckless and licentious disposition, prompted 
to take part in any daring design, which afforded hopes 
of disorder, and destruction of all legal and moral 
restraint. 

On the 1st of May, 1335, the first section of the 
council was on the point of quitting office, while the 
second only waited for the sanction of the people, in 
order to succeed to its functions. Now, however, this 
necessary sanction was withheld until an account of the 
public money should be given; and this demand was sup- 
ported in the council by Rudolph Brun, Roger Maiiesse, 
and by several other members. The rest, however, treated 
it as a popular ebullition, which in a short time would 
subside of itself, and exhausted their whole stock of 
petty artifices to draw the affair into length, and gain 



1335. 



REVOLUTION OF ZURICH. 



73 



time. This course had heen adopted on a much better 
acquaintance with the temper of the council than with 
that of the people. After six weeks of inaction, Brun 
industriously promulgated that the lords of the council 
only meant to mock and delude the commonalty. This 
intelligence brought a multitude round the doors of the 
hall of council, who terrified its members with their 
concourse and clamour. Some declared for the burghers, 
others, in fear for their personal safety, precipitately fled 
from the city. A popular assembly was held in the 
church of the Franciscans, in which it was resolved to 
bring to account all the members of the late government, 
to reform the constiution, and to place provisional sove- 
reignty in the hands of Rudolph Brun and his friends. 
By the new constitution, framed under their auspices, 
all handicraftsmen were classed under thirteen guilds, 
the foreman of each of which should sit in council. One 
moiety of this body was henceforth to be composed of 
burghers, the other of nobles, and the whole was to be 
subject to renewal every half year. Brun caused him- 
self to be elected burgomaster for life, and contrived to 
retain considerable power in his hands ; while a prudent 
reservation of the rights of the empire, and the sanction 
of the emperor, prevented the accession of a formidable 
enemy to the infant democracy. 

It had already natural enemies enough. Rarely do 
those whom a social revolution has degraded from dis- 
tinguished eminence find themselves without friends at 
home — without allies abroad ; — and still more rarely 
are they capable of renouncing their hereditary pre- 
tensions with a good grace. The ancient lords of council 
and their adherents could not forget their former func- 
tions and dignities. They entered into a secret league 
with the count of Rapper sweil, the barons of Bonstet- 
ten, Mazingen, and others ; and the night of the 24th 
of February, 1350, was fixed for a general massacre of 
the democratic party. Some of the conspirators had re- 
entered the town secretly ; others had acquired and 



74 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND, 



1350. 



abused the public confidence in their peaceable intentions, 
and numerous auxiliaries approached the town by land 
and by water. A baker's boy is said to have discovered 
the conspiracy at the moment of its meditated explosion ; 
and the town was sa\ed by B run's skill and decision, 
supported by the bravery of the citizens. The loss of 
the conspirators was enormous ; and, besides those who 
perished in the conflict, or by drowning in the river, 
thirty- seven died on the wheel or by the sword of the 
executioner. The Zurichers, with the aid of Schaff, 
hausen, soon made themselves masters of Rappersweil ; 
and, a few days before Christmas, Rudolph Brun, in 
contempt of his own promise, burned the town, aban- 
doning the helpless inhabitants to the rigours of the 
season and to famine. But when, in the following year, 
duke Albert of Austria threatened severe retaliation for 
these outrages, the burgomaster addressed himself to the 
league of the forest cantons for reinforcements and re- 
ception into their permanent confederacy. Uri, Schwytz, 
Unterwalden, and Lucerne, which had long regarded 
Zurich as their principal mart and bulwark, accepted 
her proposals with alacrity ; and, on the Walpurgis night 
of the year 1351, closed with her a perpetual league 
of reciprocal aid against all enemies, reserving only the 
rights of earlier allies of the emperor and the holy Roman 
empire. 

Albert now began to press the Zurickers more closely, 
and demanded satisfaction for the burning of Rappers- 
weil, — a town which had belonged to his relative, — as 
well as for all other injuries done to the dependants and 
adherents of Austria. He advanced at the head of 
16,000 men, and, moreover, called the people of Glarus to 
arms as his auxiliaries. On their refusal, as they 
alleged that they were under the immediate protection 
of the empire, and acknowledged no obligation to aid 
in the private feuds of Austria, the duke resolved to 
send troops into Glarus, where he himself was protector 
of the monastery of Seckingen, and from whence he 



1351. 



SIEGE OF ZURICH. 



75 



might overawe Schwytz and Uri, and deter their popu- 
lation from assisting the Zurich ers. This design was, 
however, frustrated by the confederates from the forest 
cantons, who achieved the occupation of Glarus by an un- 
expected inroad in mid- winter. The people of Glarus 
pledged their faith to the Schwytzers ; sent 200 men to re- 
inforce the garrison of Zurich ; defeated Walter of Stadion , 
as he marched upon their territory, at the head of Aus- 
trian forces from Rappersweil, and captured and de- 
stroyed the castle of Naefels. Admission into the league 
of the confederates rewarded these achievements of their 
new allies. 

On the side of Zug the confederates were still ex- 
posed to attack, and the connection of their forces was 
interrupted. Two thousand six hundred men from Zurich 
and the forest cantons approached the town, and re- 
ceived oaths of fidelity from the neighbouring districts, 
reserving only the rights of the duke of Austria. The 
town itself, which was held by a strong garrison, at first 
made a vigorous defence, till the burghers, becoming dis- 
couraged by the assaults of the besiegers, solicited a 
three days' truce. Delegates were despatched by them 
to duke Albert, who described to him the straitened 
situation of the town ; but the duke, instead of attending 
to them, turned to question his falconer whether his 
birds had been fed ; and when asked whether his subjects 
did not concern him more than his birds, replied, " Go ! 
if you are conquered, we shall very soon reconquer you." 
Resentment of such wanton disregard did not fail to 
produce a new disposition in those who had been its 
objects; and Zug immediately joined the league of the 
forest cantons and Zurich, on nearly the same conditions 
as the latter town, — Glarus having already, on the 4th 
of the same month, acceded to the same eternal con- 
federacy. 

Duke Albert, instead of wasting his resources in 
petty hostilities against Zug and Glarus, prepared to 
crush the force of the confederates at one blow, by the 
capture and subjection of Zurich. In this enterprise he 



76 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1353. 



tasked the whole strength of his hereditary domains and 
allies. The elector of Brandenburg, with many othei 
secular princes, five bishops, six and twenty counts, the 
towns of Berne, Soleure, Basle, Strasburg, and Schaff- 
hausen swelled the ranks of his auxiliaries. He ex- 
hausted his domains by extraordinary imposts. The 
stout defence of the Zurichers, however, soon made it 
evident that, against a people so steadfast, united, and 
dauntless as the Swiss, no glory could be gained by con- 
tending ; while, moreover, the dearth of provisions in 
the camp of duke Albert became such as threatened 
absolute famine. In this emergency, the elector of 
Brandenburg offered his mediation, and despatched con- 
fidential messengers to treat with the Swiss. Scarcely 
had an answer been received from the town, when its 
inhabitants saw the enemy draw of? from their walls ; 
the Bernese alone retained their position. The terms of 
peace were arranged through the elector's intervention ; 
and in these, as in all previous ones, the privileges and 
leagues of the confederates were maintained inviolate. 
Berne was now received among their number : her recent 
alliance with Austria, which was known to have been 
merely in compliance with existing engagements, had 
not destroyed the sense of common interests with her 
neighbours. 

Such was the alliance of the eight towns and districts, 
which, for more than a century afterwards, received no 
new member into the body of their original confederacy. 
In this league, the three forest cantons alone, Uri, 
Schwytz, and Unterwalden, properly speaking, formed 
the old and genuine Switzerland. They alone, who had 
admitted all the others into their everlasting league, 
were in alliance with all of them ; — with Lucerne, whom 
they had aided to emancipate herself from Austria; with 
Berne, whom they had voluntarily assisted in emergency ; 
with Zurich, whose cause, when forsaken by all others, 
they had adopted ; with Zug and Glarus, whom they 
had conquered only to confer on their inhabitants friend- 
ship and freedom. On the other hand, no particular 



1353. LEAGUE OF THE EIGHT CANTONS. 



77 



bond of union existed between Glarus and Lucerne ; no 
immediate league bad been formed between Zurich, 
Berne, and Lucerne ; the Bernese were under no obli- 
gations with regard to Zug and Glarus. The forest can- 
tons remained the pivot — the keystone — of the whole 
confederacy, — the remaining five being leagued with 
them, and only through them with each other. Their 
energy preserved that union, of which the only object 
was the maintenance of the spirit of freedom, while, in 
other respects, every canton retained its independence 
and the liberty of constituting at pleasure its own inter- 
nal administration, laws, and institutions. It was only 
in the course of time that reciprocal engagements be- 
twixt the other cantons were agreed to, which, in like 
manner, reserved to each contracting party unlimited 
powers in their own internal arrangements. This league 
continued to flourish only so long as its organisation 
continued correspondent with the wants of the time — ■ 
until its animating soul, the spirit of freedom and self- 
sacrifice, had departed from the frame of the confederacy 
— until many desired to retain freedom only for them- 
selves, along with absolute domination over their sub- 
jects ; while others could not resolve to raise their arm 
for the defence of their confederates in extremity, so 
long as they entertained the delusive hope of remaining 
undisturbed amidst the ruin of their brethren. 

After this pacification, the duke of Austria endea- 
voured to compel the people of Zug to renounce their 
connection with the Swiss league. But they answered, 
that the treaty of peace had maintained that league in- 
violate; and that they would yield to no other claims 
than such as the duke could rightfully make. Albert on 
this laid the whole affair before the emperor, their 
common liege lord; and a diet at Worms condemned the 
Swiss league, on the alleged ground that members of the 
empire could not bind themselves together without the 
concurrence of their head. Weapons more effectual 
than sophistry were marshalled to support this decision. 
Summonses were sent to all the feudatories of Austria 



78 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1356. 



as well as those of the empire ; and all the imperial 
towns were called to aid with their militia. Charles IV. 
himself advanced in person with a force of 4000 knights, 
and at least 40,000 foot and horse ; and laid siege to Zu- 
rich. These mighty preparations, though directed against 
a garrison of barely 4000 mem, were equally ineffectual 
as those of the duke of Austria had been in the preceding 
year. The Zurichers besides contrived artfully to indi- 
cate that their quarrel with Austria did not affect their 
allegiance to the emperor, by displaying, on a lofty 
tower, the ensign of the holy Roman empire — a black 
eagle on a golden field. They followed un this demon- 
stration with a petition from a number of their barons, 
burghers, and magistrates ; and these overtures, com- 
bined with the impression made by the spectacle of their 
steadiness and union, induced the emperor, after a siege 
of only twenty days, to disband his army, and to leave 
the Swiss confederacy in quiet. 

It being found that the confederates were not to be 
coerced with arms, an attempt was made to break their 
force by producing disunion amongst them. Brun,, 
whose conduct was arbitrary on all occasions_, subscribed, 
with a few other members of council, a separate treaty of 
peace in the name of his town ; and, moreover, an alliance 
with Austria, which might well displease the confede- 
rates, as its provisions were more binding and extensive 
than those of their league ; nay, in certain cases went 
to supersede it. The interest of their trade, which was 
ever uppermost with the Zurichers, may have moved 
them to close so sinister a compact, the evil effects of 
which were^ however, averted by the steadiness and fore- 
sight of Schwytz. As duke Albert would not yield up 
his pretensions, and the emperor persisted in declaring, 
" that the Swiss should not, on pain of the imperial dis- 
pleasure, regard Schwytz and Glarus as their allies/' 
the confederates held a diet at Lucerne. Zurich did not 
appear, and remained neutral. Schwytz, however, de- 
clared that the decree should be resisted, and the event 
reposed in God's hands and their own. The Austrians 



1356. 



CHARACTER OF RUDOLPH BR UN. 



79 



demanded the submission of Zug and Glarus, which was 
refused until the duke should give his sanction to their 
league with the confederates. The Austrians threatened ; 
on which the men of Schwytz raised their banner, and 
espoused the cause of Zug and Glarus in the name of all 
the confederates. Duke Albert, however, did not find 
it advisable to renew the war. He was old and infirm ; 
pain and impatience had lamed his spirit for action ; he 
no longer cherished hopes of conquest ; and he therefore 
acquiesced in the arrangement of existing points of dis- 
pute, through the mediation of Peter, baron of Thorberg, 
by whom a treaty was accordingly concluded with the 
confederates, which was commonly known by the name 
of the peace of Thorberg. 

Rudolph Brun, to whom the foregoing transactions 
owed their original impulse, was versed in all the wiles 
of a party leader. He knew how to attract the crowd 
by every art of persuasion, and while his power was 
small-, and the issue of his plans remained doubtful, to 
avoid the least appearance of violence. Intrepid, when 
the victory depended on words — inflexible, as long as 
he had nothing to be afraid of — he could sometimes be 
courageous through the mere dread of death, and his 
natural timidity made him habitually vigilant. His 
abilities were better adapted for civic transactions than 
great affairs, — yet, perhaps, the only quality which he 
wanted as a magistrate, was the strength of mind to act 
with uprightness. Notwithstanding all his failings, he 
possessed the attachment of many, to whom the revolu- 
tion which he led brought economical or social advan- 
tages. His renown was at its highest pitch in the four- 
teenth year of his government, through the nourishing 
state of affairs, which was ascribed to his administration. 
But on examining his character, as it developed itself 
from year to year in the elevated position where he fixed 
himself for life, it exhibits a less favourable aspect ; at 
the point of time especially, when, after having procured 
for his native town the protection of the confederacy, he 



80 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1338. 



ruined his own patriotic work by an unseasonable com- 
pact with Austria, not without suspicion of sordid 
motives in the transaction. Yet it cannot be denied 
that Bran's undertakings gave a firmer seat to internal 
freedom in Switzerland, as we shall presently see ex- 
ternal perils combated by the energies of Pteding and of 
Erlach. 

While the burghers of Zurich employed themselves 
in overthrowing aristocratical sovereignty within their 
walls, at Berne the nobles joined their strength with 
that of the commons in repelling aristocratical aggression 
from without. The rapid growth of the town in wealth 
and importance, and its numerous territorial acquisitions 
and purchases, aroused the jealous pride of the counts 
and barons in its neighbourhood. Berne had long been 
distinguished by an active and ambitious spirit, impa- 
tient of control or restraint, and which nothing but the 
altered state of Europe could have prevented from ad- 
vancing as resistlessly to greatness as had been done 
under more favourable circumstances by the most re- 
nowned republics of antiquity. Constantly intent on 
leaving no debt unpaid, whether of hostility or friend- 
ship, they pursued progressive aggrandisement on the 
ruin of their enemies, or by reconciling and receiving 
them into the privileges of citizenship. This system 
created a numerous body of out-burghers, the protection 
of whom involved the town in everlasting feuds, which 
might sometimes be considered unavoidable, but were 
often waged from eager love of glory, or as offering an 
occasion of aggrandisement. Agriculture and arms 
engrossed the nobility ; trade and the mechanical arts 
w r ere exercised by the people. Public affairs came by 
degrees, under the direction of a certain number of fa- 
milies ; and though the burghers were, by law, to be 
consulted in all state-occasions, yet the authorities dis- 
pensed with that formality on pressing emergencies ; 
emergencies which could not fail frequently to recur 
amidst the enterprises of Austria, and the barons in the 
neighbourhood, and which, by calling off the popular 



1338. LEAGUE OF NOBLES AGAINST BERNE. 81 

attention to external attacks, were apt to favour domestic 
usurpation. 

In the hundred and twenty-seventh year after the 
building of Berne, the higher and inferior nobility of 
Aargau and Burgundy combined their whole force for 
its destruction with the barons and counts in the Uecht- 
land. The dukes of Austria joined this combination ; 
and the emperor Louis sanctioned its proceedings 
through his envoys. A beginning was made by petty 
provocations and affronts ; but more serious measures 
were taken after a general assembly of the nobles in the 
town of Freyburg. At this meeting all the injuries 
were enumerated, alleged to have been suffered from 
Berne, whose burghers, it was said, aimed at the ruin of 
the nobility. Hostilities were determined, and com- 
menced against the obnoxious town ; all commerce and 
intercourse with it closed. Berne sought no protector, 
and her citizens neither exhibited trepidation nor blind 
ardour. The council, under the avoyer, John of Bu- 
benberg, resolved, that satisfaction should be given to 
all equitable demands, but that force should be repelled 
with force ; and as all negotiation with the nobles was 
fruitless, an appeal to arms remained the only alternative. 
Laupen, a small town in the Bernese territory, was 
already threatened by the combined force of the emperor 
and the nobles, consisting of 15,000 foot and 3000 
horse, led by 1200 knights, in complete armour*, and 
700 barons, with crowned helmets. The victory or 
overthrow of Berne was now to decide the freedom or 
servitude of the whole of western Switzerland. The 
peasantry who fled into the town for refuge brought 
frightful accounts of the near approach, the overwhelm- 
ing forces, and the merciless dispositions of the enemy. 
They were minded to leave not a human creature alive 
in Berne, but to put whatever had life in it to the sword 
without pity. Each of the hostile leaders had already 
selected a mansion in the town, of which, after their 
assured success, they meant to take possession. Mean 

* Ferreis minis annate. 
G 



82 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1333- 

while the nobles gave themselves up to an arrogant se- 
curity ; while the burghers, on the other hand, put forth 
their whole defensive strength, and determined rather to 
bury themselves in the ruins of their town than to ask 
or accept mercy from the insolent invaders. As the 
first aim of the enemy was directed against Laupen, 
w T here only a small garrison was posted, under the 
knight of Blankenburg, they swore by God and all the 
saints to sacrifice life and goods in the defence of the 
place, and issued a decree, that (e if any father had two 
sons, or if in any house there were two brothers, one of 
each should march to the relief of Laupen." Six hun- 
dred men marched accordingly under the younger Bu- 
benberg. 

The Bernese, having thus provided /or the first instant 
emergency, proceeded at more leisure to levy the force 
of their out-burghers, elect a general, and solicit the 
support of the confederates. Though the term of their 
original league with the forest cantons had expired, 
these brave allies were foremost in advancing to their 
succour. Nine hundred able warriors marched across 
the Briinig to Berne : and the whole force of the town 
advanced upon Laupen on the 20th of June, 1339, under 
the command of Rudolph of Erlach. Erlach drew up his 
troops in good order, assigning to the allies, and first of 
all to the forest cantons, the post of honour against the 
enemy's cavalry. He himself, at the head of the troops 
of Berne, prepared to attack their infantry, and gave 
the signal for the engagement, by exclaiming, (C Where 
be now those gallant youths who were wont to bid de- 
fiance to the enemy in their revels at Berne, adorned 
with flowers and feathers ? The honour of your town 
is now in your hands. — Follow her banner ! Follow 
Erlach ! " On this the youths of Berne rushed round the 
banner ; the slingers advanced ; and having discharged 
three volleys with considerable execution, fell back into 
their former position. This retrograde movement was 
taken for a flight in the rear of the army, which was 
occupied by young inexperienced combatants, who 



1339. 



BATTLE OF LAUPEN. 



83 



wheeled about, and fled into the neighbouring wood. 
Their flight occasioned wavering and disorder in the 
main body. At this critical moment Erlach showed the 
soul of a great leader, whose presence of mind is not to 
be shaken by the most untoward accidents. He cried 
to the troops with an air of cheerful confidence, ec My 
friends, we shall now conquer, for the chaff is threshed 
from the corn ! " Then, waving his sword, he gave the 
command for a charge. The nature of the ground had 
not allowed the enemy's infantry to extend its lines 
sufficiently; and the want of subordination and of union 
which prevailed amongst an army under so many rival 
chiefs, rendered it utterly unable to maintain its ground 
against the compact mass of the confederates. After a 
short and feeble resistance, the infantry threw away their 
arms, and took to flight in utter disorder. The forest 
cantons, the men of Soleure, of Hasli, and of Sieben- 
thal, were still engaged in doubtful strife with the ca- 
valry. Already they were on the verge of utter defeat, 
and had only maintained their ground through the ob- 
stinate stand made by the forest cantons ; when the men 
of Berne attacked the enemy at once in flank and in 
rear, and the victory was now complete on all points. 
The field was strewed with the bodies, arms, and horses 
of the nobility. So total was their overthrow, that the 
baron of Blumenberg no sooner heard the numbers and 
the names of the fallen, than exclaiming, " God forbid 
I should survive such men ! " he spurred his horse upon 
the ranks of the forest cantons and found what he sought, 
an honourable death. Seven-and-twenty banners of the 
imperial towns and nobles fell into the hands of the 
victors, who, after a short pursuit of the fugitives, re- 
assembled on the field of battle, fell down on their 
knees, and returned thanks to Him who had given them 
the victory over their enemies. The garrison at Laupen 
heartily sympathised with the joy of their victorious 
brethren ; and Erlach paid his tribute of acknowledg- 
ment to the valour and the discipline of his army. He 
then gave orders to remain on the field during the night, 



84* HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 133$. 

according to the usage, partly to prove on whose side 
was the victory, and partly to take care of the wounded. 
Early on the following morning, the conquerors marched 
homewards. A priest, with the holy sacrament, led the 
procession ; next in order went the conquered banners, 
arms, and accoutrements ; and the procession was closed 
by the march of the conquering army. In this manner 
they reached Berne, and entered the city amidst exulting 
shouts of welcome from the people. Erlach, having 
saved his country, laid down the authority with which 
in the hour of need he had been invested. Berne re- 
newed her league with the forest cantons, and gave them 
practical tokens of her gratitude. The celebration of a 
solemn divine service was ordained on every future an- 
niversary of the day of Laupen, that pious remembrance 
arid ardent emulation of its glories might be preserved 
through all succeeding generations. 

The triumphs of Swiss valour were soon saddened by 
the breaking out of that great plague, which visited with 
its ravages the greater part of Europe and Asia, and of 
which the most vivid delineation ever written (except 
that of a similar pest by Thucydides) has been pre- 
served in the Decameron of Boccaccio. Whole towns were 
depopulated. Estates were left without claimants or 
occupiers. Priests, physicians, grave-diggers, could not 
be found in adequate numbers ; and the consecrated 
earth of the churchyards no longer sufficed for the 
reception of its destined tenants. In the order of 
Franciscans alone 120,430 monks are said to have 
perished. This plague had been preceded by tremen- 
dous earthquakes, which laid in ruins towns, castles, 
and villages. Dearth and famine, clouds of locusts, and 
even an innocent comet had been long before regarded 
as forerunners of the pestilence ; and when it came it 
was viewed as an unequivocal sign of the wrath of God. 
At the outset, the Jews became, as usual, objects of 
umbrage, as having occasioned this calamity by poison- 
ing the wells. A persecution was commenced against 
them, and numberless innocent persons were consigned, 



1349. 



GREAT PLAGUE. 



85 



by heated fanaticism, to a dreadful death by fire, and 
their children were baptized over the corpses of their 
parents, according to the religion of their murderers. 
These atrocities were in all probability perpetrated by 
many, in order to possess themselves of the wealth 
acquired by the Jews in traffic, to take revenge for their 
usurious extortions, or, finally, to pay their debts in the 
most expeditious and easy manner. When it was found 
that the plague was nowise diminished by massacring 
the Jews, but, on the contrary, seemed to acquire ad- 
ditional virulence, it was inferred that God, in his 
righteous wrath, intended nothing less than to extirpate 
the whole sinful race of man. Many now endeavoured 
by self-chastisement to avert the divine vengeance from 
themselves. Fraternities of hundreds and thousands col- 
lected under the name of Flagellants, strolled through 
the land in strange garbs, scourged themselves in the 
public streets, in penance for the sins of the world, and 
read a letter which was said to have fallen from heaven, 
admonishing all to repentance and amendment. They 
were joined, of course, by a crowd of idle vagabonds, 
who, under the mask of extraordinary sanctity and 
humble penitence, indulged in every species of disorder 
and debauchery. At last the affair assumed so grave 
an aspect, that the pope and many secular princes 
declared themselves against the Flagellants, and speedily 
put an end to their extravagances. Various ways were 
still, however, resorted to by various tempers to snatch 
the full enjoyment of that life which they were so soon 
to lose, at the expense of every possible violation of the 
laws of morality. Only a few lived on in a quiet and 
orderly manner, in reliance on the saving help of God, 
without running into any excess of anxiety or indul- 
gence. After this desolating scourge had raged during 
four years, its violence seemed at length to be ex- 
hausted. 

Rudolph of Erlach, the hero of Laupen, had on the 
close of the war withdrawn himself from the stage of 

g 3 



86 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1360. 



public life, and lived to an advanced age on his property 
near Berne. There he remained in his castle, honoured 
by all, in modest retirement : his children were at a 
distance from him ; and while men and maids were 
busied in husbandry^ the old man often was left under 
the sole protection of his hounds. The sword which 
he had worn in his country's battles hung on the wall. 
In this solitude he was visited one day by his son-in- 
law, Jost von Rudenz, who had on many occasions 
excited Erlach's displeasure. A bitter altercation is 
supposed to have taken place between them ; and Ru- 
denz, in an excess of rage, snatched the sword from the 
wall, struck down the old hero, and escaped. When 
intelligence of the murder reached Berne, the whole 
population, horse and foot, sallied forth to seize the 
murderer ; who, however, was not taken, and is sup- 
posed to have shortly afterwards met his death in seme 
unknown manner. Thus fell Erlach. 

Even in peace Berne pursued with great success her 
plans of aggrandisement by feuds, or by acquiring cas- 
tellan jurisdictions, and also made many purchases of 
territory at this time, by which the town became so 
much involved in debt, that nothing but the spirited 
exertions of the burghers could have cleared away its nu- 
merous embarrassments. While such was the external 
progress of Berne, the internal tranquillity of the town 
became disturbed by the strife between the higher ranks 
of nobility and the lesser nobles, as well as the respectable 
burghers. These dissensions were, however, composed 
with much discretion, moderation, and equity; a few sus- 
picious characters were removed from the council, and 
future encroachments on the part of the authorities were 
provided against by judicious regulations. 

Zurich, under the wise and moderate government of 
Roger Manesse, who, on the death Brun, succeeded to 
the dignity of burgomaster, sought a remedy in dili- 
gence and industry for the serious wounds which severe 
and protracted warfare had inflicted on the morals and 
the wealth of its population ; whose numbers had^ more- 



1370. 



THE PFAFFENBRIEF. 



87 



over, been diminished by one eighth. The first aim of 
the government of Zurich was to ameliorate its im- 
poverished condition ; the second, to set limits, by strong 
sumptuary laws, to the decay of moral discipline, and 
to new modes of extravagance; the third, to secure the 
freedom of the burghers by wise amendments in a 
defective constitution, which had bestowed upon the 
burgomaster more extensive powers than should be 
given in a free state to any one. Thus, in four and 
twenty years of almost uninterrupted peace, Zurich 
gradually rose to even more than her former prosperity. 
Berne could certainly boast of greater power than 
Zurich, of more illustrious rulers, of a more high- 
minded and warlike people. Zurich, on the other hand_, 
pursued with greater energy the arts and undertakings 
of peace ; and while Berne advanced with rapid strides 
to the rank of a powerful commonwealth, bore away the 
palm of civilisation and improvement. 

Lucerne, torn by perpetual party contests, and exter- 
nally exposed to the power of Austria, remained far 
behind Berne and Zurich. 

Zug and Glarus were quiet and contented, as it was 
no longer in the power of Austria to invade their rights 
and liberties. 

The forest cantons felt but little concern about the 
outward world, and followed the still tenour of their 
pastoral life ; but they were not the less endowed with 
a free spirit, and prepared at any moment to fight for 
their freedom, friends, and country. While the con- 
federacy thus enjoyed its liberties, the towns of St. Gall, 
SchafFhausen, Basle, Soleure, Sion, and Lausanne, strug- 
gled eagerly to attain the like advantages. 

The forest cantons, along with Zurich, Lucer'ne, and 
Zug, adopted, in 1370, a set of regulations very re- 
markable for those times, which were known under the 
title of the PfafFenbrief, the object of which was to 
hinder the abuse of clerical influence, to abolish the im- 
punity enjoyed by ecclesiastics^ even in cases of enor- 

g 4 



88 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1365. 



mous criminality, to narrow the operation of their 
intrigues and their vindictiveness, and to render them 
amenable to the native laws and tribunals. The pecu- 
niary wants of princes and nobles prompted bolder and 
bolder measures against the clergy ; the towns taxed 
them ; the peasantry refused to pay any longer many 
services of vassalage imposed by their authority ; and 
the church vassals themselves, especially in the district 
of Appenzeil, hardly maintained the semblance of obe- 
dience to their mandates. 

The power of the nobility declined with that of the 
clergy, as the great barons set themselves to vie with the 
magnificence of the princes of Austria, Savoy, and Milan: 
thus preparing their own ruin by the abandonment of 
their primitive manners, as well as by the consumption 
of their patrimonial wealth. The noble houses 'of Mont- 
fort, Neufchatel, Kyburg, and a few others, maintained 
themselves with difficulty between the rising Swiss re- 
public and the growing powers of Austria and Savoy. 

During the peace with Austria, the confederacy had 
to repel two other assaults of hostile power. No prince 
or town was at that time sufficiently rich to support 
standing armies ; or if there were any whose wealth might 
have enabled them to do so, they would hardly have 
dared to combat the repugnance of their people, who 
justly regarded standing troops as an instrument for their 
subjection. In case of. war, the nobles with their squires 
followed for a certain time their prince's banner on horse- 
back, while the common people served on foot ; belli- 
gerent towns, on the other hand, called out their burghers 
and out-burghers. This mode of conducting war had 
obvious disadvantages. As the vassals of princes were 
only obliged to a limited term of service, a large army 
not unfrequently disbanded just at the moment when 
the best success might have been expected ; and as the 
nobles and people felt the constant recurrence of warfare 
more and more burdensome, it often happened that 
military service was refused. Other disadvantages, more- 



1365. 



ARNOLD OF CERVOLA. 



89 



over, were inseparable from these imperfect military ar- 
rangements, which often crippled the conduct of the best 
planned undertakings. And if the towns had not exactly 
the same impediments to struggle with, as were often 
opposed to princes by the turbulence of their vassals, 
they had others perhaps equally embarrassing. The 
wealth acquired in trade introduced effeminacy, decay of 
martial spirit, and dread of death ; and gave rise to the 
wish to free themselves by any means from a personal 
share in warlike expeditions. To liberate towns and 
princes from these difficulties, bold and enterprising men 
soon offered their services : these men, who, for the most 
part, were poor nobles, or burghers and peasants anxious 
to distinguish themselves by deeds of valour, levied on 
their own account large troops of rapacious rabble, often 
to the number of many thousands. Thus escorted, they 
roamed about, maintaining themselves and their armies 
at the cost of the unfortunate lands which lay in their 
line of march ; and offering their mercenary services, for 
one or more campaigns, to towns and princes. When 
dismissed by one employ er, if they did not immediately 
find another they betook themselves to predatory excur- 
sions on their own score. Not a few of these leaders 
were murdered by their own band ; many met a dis- 
graceful death on the scaffold ; but, on the other hand, 
some won for themselves domains and principalities. 
Their formation was the first trace and original germ 
of standing armies ; and has considerable resemblance 
to the manner in which partisan corps are formed 
in modern warfare. As the invention of this mode 
of making war belonged to Italy, the leaders of these 
troops received the Italian name of condottieri. One 
of these mercenary captains, Arnold of Cervola, a man 
of acknowledged courage but indifferent reputation, had 
fought in the pay of France against England : after the 
close of that war, he marched through several districts 
at the head of twenty, thirty, or even forty thousand 
men ; and, spreading devastation around him, advanced 



90 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1375. 



upon the town of Basle. On other occasions he avoided 
attacking fortified towns with his ill-disciplined troops, 
who were totally devoid of all preparation, practice, and 
appetite for services which required patience and order : 
but Basle had only just been rebuilt after a wasting 
earthquake : its trenches were in many places still choked 
with rubbish, which gave unusual facilities for storming. 
At this moment of terror Basle begged for aid from the 
confederates ; and in a few days Berne and Soleure, 
which were leagued with that town, sent 1500 men to 
its assistance. As soon as they were received in the 
suburbs, the leader of Berne addressed them : — cc Hav- 
ing been sent to venture all for you, faithful and true 
friends and colleagues, post us where the danger will be 
greatest/' A day later, 3000 picked troops arrived from 
the other cantons to defend Basle, as a bulwark of the 
confederacy, although they had then no direct league 
with it. Cervola, who had heard of Swiss valour and 
Swiss poverty, found it advisable to turn his march 
northwards without an attempt on Basle : in the follow- 
ing year (1366) he was despatched by his own followers, 
in Provence. 

Ten years after the menaced inroad of Cervola,, In- 
gram or Ingelram de Coucy, count of Soissons and earl 
of Bedford (titles both conferred on him by Edward III. 
of England, whose daughter Isabella he had received in 
marriage), proclaimed a feud against Austria, that power 
having refused to pay the marriage portion of his mother 
Catharina, daughter of the late duke Leopold, slain at 
Morgarten, on pretence that the towns and lands assigned 
for its payment had fallen for the most part into the 
hands of the confederates. In Coucy's army were many 
English in splendid armour, with gilt helmets, or high- 
crowned iron caps (Germanice, gugel-hstis, or capuches,) 
whom the cessation of the war between France and 
England had reduced to an unwelcome state of inaction, 
and who willingly joined the standard raised by a son- 
in-law of their monarch. Besides these excellent war- 
riors, from whom the bands of Coucy were sometimes 



1386. 



INGELRAM DE COUCY. 



91 



called the Englanders, and sometimes, on account of 
their strangely fashioned hats, the Giiglers, Coucy picked 
up numerous recruits in France and the Netherlands, 
and was also reinforced by the remains of Cervola's army. 
With these bands, which carried terror before them, 
spread devastation around, and left misery behind them, 
he began his expedition against Austria. Leopold now 
applied for the assistance of the confederates, which was 
afforded with alacrity on the part of Berne and Zurich, 
as the open country of these cantons was equally ex- 
posed to attack. But the forest cantons declared that 
they would not sacrifice their people in order to protect 
the lands of a hostile power from invasion ; they would, 
therefore, view the course of the war merely as spec- 
tators ; and if the enemy should reach their borders, 
they hoped, by God's assistance, and by the vigour of 
their own right arms, to be able to defend themselves. 
They adhered to this determination, although they would 
have done better to take up arms in defence of the 
Aargau, not on the duke's account, but because it was 
an avant-mure of Zurich and Berne. On the approach 
of Coucy's force, an unaccountable panic seems to have 
taken possession of the Austrians and their Swiss allies : 
the invaders plundered and laid under contribution the 
whole country from the Jura to the gates of Berne and 
frontiers of Zurich. As the produce of these tracts hardly 
sufficed to feed their own inhabitants, such dearth and 
desolation ensued, that many not insignificant towns 
could with difficulty defend themselves from the wolves. 
Coucy's army itself suffered dreadfully ; and the oppres- 
sions which it was forced, for self-preservation, to heap 
on the land, brought the people at last to despair and to 
resistance. Three thousand English warriors were de- 
feated near Buttisholz, by a few hundred inhabitants of 
Entlibuch (a district among the mountains that decline 
from the higher Alps towards the Aargau), assisted, 
however, by straggling bands from Lucerne and Unter- 
walden. As the conquering men of Entlibuch were 
riding home on English horses, exultingly displaying the 



92 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1382. 



arras and ornaments of the vanquished, the baron Peter 
of Dorrenberg, as they passed his castle, cried out, — 
ee O noble blood, alas ! that peasants should wear your 
decorations/' — " That hath come to pass," replied an 
Entlibucher, " because we have this day mingled noble 
blood with blood of horses/' A mound, called the En- 
glish barrow, near the wood of Buttisholz, still remains 
as a monument of the action. 

Count Rudolph of Kyburg, one of the few remaining 
powerful nobles, expiated a treacherous attempt to sur- 
prise the town of Soleure, over which he claimed some 
jurisdiction, by the loss of a great part of his hereditary 
domains ; as the citizens of the town in question took 
their revenge, with the aid of Berne, by inroads on his 
lands and those of his friends. Berne, with her accus- 
tomed policy, took the opportunity of appropriating Thun 
as well as the bailliage of Griessenberg. 

Though the recent peace still remained unbroken, 
many secret causes of discord were in active operation, 
which could not fail to produce a new and sanguinary 
contest. The support which the count of Kyburg had 
received from the Austrian territories had awakened the 
distrust of the confederates, while the ruin of that an- 
cient house, and the growth of the power of Berne, had 
exasperated the ill-will of the nobles towards the con- 
federacy. Duke Leopold III. of Austria, who resembled 
in pride as well as in courage that Leopold who had 
fought with the confederates at Morgarten, brought 
bitter complaints against the confederates for receiving 
into their league, in defiance of treaties, Entlibuch, Sem- 
pach, Meyenberg, Reichensee, and other places, on which 
he had claims, as either subject or mortgaged to him : he 
charged Lucerne with breaking into his castle of Rothen- 
burg in time of peace, and Zurich (whether with or 
without foundation we are only enabled by history to 
conjecture) with having planned a similar inroad upon 
Rappers weil. On the other hand, besides the share 
which Leopold had, contrary to his solemn engagements, 
taken in the count of Kyburg' s quarrel with the con- 



1386. 



BATTLE OF SEMFACH. 



93 



federates, he had violated several points in the late 
pacification, and had done injury to the trade of the con- 
federates, by the erection of a bridge at Rappersweil, 
as well as by the exaction of new tolls and dues at that 
place and at Rothenburg. And if Leopold had hitherto 
taken no further steps against the confederates, his for- 
bearance was not so much attributed to love of peace, or 
regard to the faith of treaties, as to the obstacles which 
were laid in his way by circumstances. As soon as these 
were overcome, he marched into the Aargau, and swore 
a solemn oath, by God's assistance, to dissever " that 
insulting league of the Swiss, the source of so much 
unrighteous warfare.'*' 

The hatred of the nobles now broke forth against the 
free burghers, so that messages of defiance reached the 
confederacy from 167 lords temporal and spiritual, 
which, in order to enhance their stunning effect, were 
delivered in twenty messages successively. At this 
crisis Berne declined taking the part in the common 
danger which seemed enjoined by gratitude for the 
aid of her confederates at Laupen, on pretence of an 
eleven years' truce with Leopold ; of which, however, 
the term was to expire in a few months. The other 
cantons reinforced the Zurichers, against whom the first 
attack was apprehended, with 1600 men, and ravaged 
in conjunction with them the neighbouring lands of 
Austria ; but on the news of a threatened inroad on 
Lucerne, the force destined to garrison that town was 
detached thither, while the Zurichers protected their 
own walls against the division of the ducal force by 
which they were menaced. Meanwhile the duke 
marched rapidly towards the interior of the country, at 
the head of a body of picked troops ; and on the 9th of 
July, 1386, met the Swiss advancing from Zurich in 
the neighbourhood of Sempach. 

Arrogance and scornful menace heralded the march of 
an enemy confident of a sure and easy victory. Cords, 
as on a former occasion, were prepared to hang the ex- 
pected captives. A certain baron of Hasenburg, who 



Q4 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1386. 

suggested prudent caution, received the punning nick- 
name, heart of liaise (Hasenherz) ; and, in order to owe 
the honour of victory solely to themselves, the heavy- 
armed nobility dismounted from their horses, cut the 
long peaks then in fashion from their shoes, and formed 
an extended line of battle, seemingly impenetrable, 
through the formidable length and close array of the 
presented spears. The Swiss had nothing but boards 
attached to their left arms by way of bucklers, but 
charged manfully notwithstanding their rude accoutre- 
ments, in reliance on their God, and in the cause of their 
country. Their leaders fought in front of the battle, 
and many of them soon fell before the levelled spears of 
the enemy. It was then that Arnold of Winkelried, a 
knight of Unterwalden (for the chivalry was not all on 
one side), resolved by his heroic death to render an im- 
perishable service to his father-land. Exclaiming, " I will 
make way for you, confederates — provide for my wife 
and children — honour my race!" — he rushed upon the 
spears, and grasping several with his arms, he bore them 
to the ground with the weight of his body, over which 
the confederates forced their way through the broken 
ranks of the enemy, who were unable to manoeuvre from 
the closeness cf their array, and half smothered under 
the sultry summer's sun in their ponderous armour. 
The high-souled Leopold fell beside the sinking banner 
of Austria, resolved to share the fate of those true fol- 
lowers who had sacrificed themselves in his cause. More 
than 600 of the higher and lower nobility were left on 
the field, with about 2000 of their less distinguished 
adherents. The slaughter would have been greater had 
not the Swiss yielded too eagerly to the appetite for 
plunder. Fifteen banners fell into the hands of the 
victors, who lost about 200 men ; but amongst these 
some of their bravest. The avoyer Gundoldingen, a 
man in high esteem among his countrymen, and deeply 
imbued with the spirit of a republican government, died 
repeating the words, c: Tell the men of Lucerne to retain 
no avoyer longer than a single year in office." 



1387. 



THE BAD PEACE. 



95 



Leopold IV., surnamed the Proud, continued during 
several months longer the war commenced by his father 
against the confederates. He enjoyed the aid of a nume- 
rous and powerful body of nobles, eager to revenge their 
friends and relatives slain at Sempach, or to vindicate 
the honour* of their order. Yet this feud, in which 
Berne, Zurich, and Lucerne took principal parts, re- 
sembled a mere predatory excursion more than any thing 
else. Berne seized the opportunity to aggrandise her- 
self, and gained a firm footing in the Oberland. Lucerne 
destroyed several strong fortresses. Zurich did the 
same, and distinguished herself by valiant deeds of arms 
in the Wehnthal. But the conquest of the Austrian 
town of Wesen, in the Gaster, by the seven old cantons, 
alone deserves notice here, not so much on account of 
the importance of the acquisition as of its consequences. 
Since neither fame nor profit accrued from these events 
to the house of Austria, and the confederates themselves 
were tired of this desultory warfare, a year and a half's 
truce was easily mediated by several imperial towns. 
This was called the Bad Peace, on account of the nu- 
merous acts of ill faith which were exercised on both sides 
while it continued, and because its whole duration was 
employed not in pacific transactions, but in warlike pre- 
parations. At that time the minds of the confederates 
were penetrated with such hatred against Austria, that 
they could not hear the name of that house without ex- 
asperation. Whoever spoke well of Austria was regarded 
as an enemy — whoever should have adorned his hat with 
peacock's feathers, the ducal ensign, would have lost his 
life by the fury of the people. It is recorded that no 
peacock was permitted in all Switzerland; and Peacock's 
Tail became the most offensive of all nicknames. The 
national antipathy rose to such a height at this time, that 
many writers, not without ground, refer to this epoch 
the definitive separation of the Swiss confederation from 
the German empire. 

Towards the close of the truce, the Swiss garrison in 
the conquered town of Wesen were surprised by a 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1388. 



treacherous junction of the burghers with the Austrians; 
and the vogt, with all who could not escape over the 
walls, were murdered. The confederates advanced from 
the lake of Zurich, hut did not attempt to penetrate 
through the strong body of Austrian troops collected in 
the neighbourhood ; and the men of Glarus were left to 
themselves for the space of nearly two months, while 
the mountain-passes were blocked up with snow. Never- 
theless, they rejected the conditions proposed by the 
enemy, which amounted, indeed, to nearly entire subjec- 
tion. Unexpectedly, on the 9th of April, 1388, a hostile 
army, several thousand strong, made its appearance from 
the neighbouring lands of the Aargau, Thurgau, and the 
remote Swabian territories, and attacked the fortress of 
Naefels. A handful of 200 men, commanded by Mat- 
thew of Biihlen, though reinforced by 300 others who 
came up from the neighbourhood, w T ere not strong enough 
to maintain an unfinished line of fortifications extending 
across a valley from one hill to another. Their entrench- 
ments were forced, after a stout resistance. While the 
enemy, confiding in their far superior numbers, and des- 
pising the insignificant bands of Glarus, dispersed in 
every direction in quest of plunder, Biihlen collected his 
handful of men on the mountain ridges near Ruti. Even 
in an open country resolute men are capable of great 
things ; and little bands of warriors cut their way from 
all quarters to their country's banner floating from the 
height. The men of Glarus, reinforced by a few Schwy tzers 
and ether chance auxiliaries from the valleys in their 
rear, by a succession of spirited charges, brought the 
enemy first to w T avering and confusion, and at last to a 
disorderly flight. The bridge at Wesen gave way beneath 
the pressure of the fugitives. Above 3000 common men 
and 183 knights fell on the field, or found their death 
in the lake and in the river. The entreaties and mag- 
nificent offers made by the sorrowing relatives for leave 
to build a convent on the field of battle were rejected by 
the community of Glarus, w r ho justly feared that such a 
foundation might, in course of time, find means to ap 



1388. 



BATTLE OF NAEFELS. 



97 



propriate the best lands, acquire a dangerous influence, 
and encourage that of foreigners. The same community 
ordained that, on each succeeding April, the principal 
able-bodied member of each family in the district should 
go in procession to Naefels, passing every spot and stile 
which had witnessed the achievements of their forefa- 
thers. Then and there should be read before the assembled 
people the history of the day of Sempach, the events in 
the Gaster, and, finally, of the victory of Naefels. After 
the celebration of mass for the souls of their brave ances- 
tors, and due commemoration of their constancy in the 
cause of freedom, the people were allowed to relax in 
moderate festivity. 

After incessant hostilities waged for more than thir- 
teen months, some imperial towns succeeeded in effecting 
a truce, or peace, as it was called, for seven years, in 
which the Bernese acquiesced with reluctance. In this 
peace the confederates retained their actual conquests. 
Zurich, Uri, andUnterwalden, however, acquired nothing. 
The event of the war, and the terms of peace, shook to 
their foundations the financial resources of Austria, as 
well as its power and influence on the popular mind in 
Switzerland. The attempt was therefore renewed to sow 
disunion among the confederates, and subdue those spirits 
by fraud which had only been roused by open violence. 
Duke Leopold gained over to his interests the burgomas- 
ter Rudolf Schon, and the majority of the council at 
Zurich. Without the knowledge of the great council, 
and in spite of the remonstrances of the rest of the con- 
federates, who watched their proceedings with attention, 
they closed with Austria a still more binding alliance 
than that of Brun had been. Zurich therein exempted 
herself from guaranteeing the recent conquests of the 
confederates, &c. The envoys of the latter had recourse 
to measures justifiable only by the peculiar relations and 
danger of the confederacy. They employed their per- 
sonal influence in the streets and public places on the 
members of the great council and congregated burghers. 
The ascendency of the government rapidly fell, as it had 

H 



98 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1394, 



only been based upon arts of intrigue and coercion. Its 
members were displaced, and^ in part, banished; the 
Austrian league dissolved, and changes made in the con- 
stitution, in consequence of which, the former rulers were 
superseded by firm friends of the confederacy. 

Convinced of the necessity of adopting regulations 
conducive to internal strength and harmony, the con- 
federates concluded as a body that state compact w T hich 
received the name of the Sempach declaration, which 
was intended to prevent the recurrence of the disorders 
which had marked the late war, and which prohibited 
self-revenge among the confederates, provided for the 
safety of commerce and intercourse, the maintenance of 
discipline, and the prevention of unnecessary violence 
and plunder among the soldiery. The seven years' 
peace with Austria was prolonged, in 1394, for twenty, 
and in 1412, for fifty years. While the influence of 
that power sunk in Switzerland ; while one ancient, proud, 
and powerful house was extinguished after another, two 
new confederations became organised in the east. Rhatia 
was the one, — the other was Appenzell. 

Enclosed by rugged chains of the higher Alps, and 
possessing a climate rapid in its vicissitudes, from eternal 
ice to almost Spanish sultriness, Rhaetia presented, in 
the times of which we are treating, a strange mixture 
of free communities with the bondsmen of the church 
and the nobles. Already had a century elapsed since 
the confederates had achieved their freedom, when the 
Rhsetians, for the first time, manned themselves to 
struggle for that glorious object. They formed al- 
liances, partly amongst themselves, and partly with the 
neighbouring confederates ; but their struggles were as 
yet too undecided, their internal relations too confused 
and unregulated, to deserve farther notice for the present. 

With more decision, and therefore with more effect, 
the district of Appenzell entered on the struggle for in- 
dependence. It consisted of some half-dozen nameless 
hamlets, at the northern end of the ancient Rhsetian 
territory, where an insulated group of mountains, like a 



1401. REVOLT OF APPENZELL. 99 

sort of natural fortress, rises high above the circumjacent 
country. The snow-crowned head of the Sentis seems 
to tower supreme over wide tracts, from the Tyrol, over 
the distant Swabian plains, as far as Wirtemberg. .Ar- 
rogance, combined with oppression and tyranny, first 
aroused in the inhabitants of this obscure region a force 
which had been hitherto unknown to themselves, but 
which extended its workings over a wide circle, until 
arrogance and imprudence on their own part again 
limited its results within a narrower field. Cuno, of 
Staufen, was invested, in 1379* with the dignity of abbot 
in the monastery of St. Gall, which for a considerable 
time back had appropriated the imperial and all other 
dues throughout the four districts around it. Cuno held 
the wisdom of a ruler to be best shown by extension of 
his rule ; his servants also delighted in surpassing their 
lord's excesses, and in barbing his oppressions with insult. 
Cuno refused to confirm the prescriptive franchises of 
the peasantry, or to gratify their wish to have their 
officers selected from the natives of their own district ; 
augmented the dues and imposts to which they were 
liable, and exercised his feudal rights with the most 
tyrannical rigour. At length, the four districts under 
his government combined for common resistance • but 
the ferment was for once appeased through the good offices 
of impartial towns and nobles in the neighbourhood. 
These conciliatory labours were however rendered useless 
by attempts on the part of the abbot and his officers to 
avenge themselves on the abettors of the recent dis- 
contents. Rigours made still farther rigours necessary ; 
and in January, 1401, the four districts leagued them- 
selves with the town of St. Gall, which had been irri- 
tated already by the abbot. They expelled that prince's 
officers, and threw up their allegiance. Constance, 
and five other imperial towns, which had shortly before 
allied themselves with the prince-abbot, as well as with 
the town of St. Gall, again succeeded in dissolving the 
league of the citizens with the mountaineers. When 
the commons of Appenzell found that force was about to 

h 2 



100 



H1STOHY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1403, 



be employed against them, they unanimously swore to a 
firm union. They now sought an alliance with the Swiss 
confederacy; but Schwytz alone answered their ad- 
vances. The abbot now allied himself more closely with the 
Swabian towns, and, through their mediation with St. Gall, 
where the princely name and influence still worked 
powerfully on the leading mem, and attempted to coerce 
the combined mountaineers by force of arms. 

But the latter had received reinforcements from the 
ever-ready Schwytzers, and had moreover been joined by 
volunteers from Glarus, though that canton was pre- 
cluded, by its league with the confederates, from entering 
into open alliance with Appenzell. On the 15th May, 
1403, the well-appointed enemy, 5000 strong, while 
attempting to penetrate towards Speicher, received, in 
the hollow road before Vogeliseck, a signal overthrow 
from 1800 ill-armed shepherds of Appenzell, backed by 
a handful of men from Schwytz and from Glarus. Few 
of the conquerors lost their lives, while 400 of their 
enemies perished ; and the town of St. Gall atoned for 
its courtly subservience by the loss of its leaders and 
many of its citizens. Nevertheless, the men of St. Gall 
and Appenzell renewed their league in 1 404, unrestrained 
by any resentment of their losses on the part of the 
former. Abbot and monks made their escape to Weil, 
while the Appenzellers, ever advancing in boldness, re- 
ceived lands and villages into their league, without regard 
to existing rights, and maintained the cause of the vassals 
of the nobles against their lords, who regarded them 
from thenceforth as their enemies. This rendered it 
easy for the abbot to stir up the nobles of the Thurgau 
and others to participate in the war against these dis- 
turbers of the peace ; and he was thus occasioned also to 
court the assistance of duke Frederick, although hitherto 
the holders of the abbacy had always cherished distrust 
against his house. Scarcely had the duke resolved to 
aid the prince-abbot, when the deeply outraged count 
Rudolph of Werdenberg, whom the rapacity of Austria 
had robbed of his paternal estates, presented himself as a 



1405. 



ENGAGEMENT AT THE STOSS. 



101 



comrade to the Appenzellers. In order to silence any 
thing like distrust, he submitted himself to voluntary 
hardships, which an ordinary knight's page of those 
times would have thought unendurable. He went clothed 
like themselves, often with bare feet, and fought in their 
ranks; but his courage, as well as counsel and experience, 
soon placed him amongst the number of their leaders. 

On a rainy day of June, 1405, the main body of duke 
Frederick's forces advanced to the borders of Appenzell, 
through the Kheinthal, and began to ascend the Stoss ; 
where the short turf of the meadows, slippery from the 
rain which had fallen, afforded no sure footing for the 
heavy-armed troops. Four hundred men of Appenzell, 
with some from Glarus and Schwytz, rolled fragments of 
rock and beams of wood down on the enemy, who had 
hardly advanced midway up the hill, when Rudolf of 
Werdenberg gave the signal for onset. Then rushed 
the men of Appenzell with loud shouts on the already 
broken lines of the Austrians ; and the slippery soil 
favoured their barefooted bands as much as it embarrassed 
those of the enemy. The rain had, besides, rendered 
the cross-bows of the latter unserviceable. Notwith- 
standing these disadvantages, the Austrians fought des- 
perately, till a new array of combatants appeared on the 
heights in the rear, who seemed designed to cut off their 
retreat. The sight of a new enemy entirely broke their 
courage, and they fled down hill precipitately, pursued 
by the men of Appenzell; whose wives and daughters, 
in shepherds' smocks, composed the dreaded reserve, of 
which a distant apparition had inspired too great a panic 
to wait for the correction of a nearer view. 

Duke Frederick, in the mean time, had advanced from 
another quarter, and carried his ravages, at the head of 
his glittering chivalry, up to the very gates of St. Gall. 
Finding the place too strong for his means of attack, he 
fell back again upon Arbon, when his disorderly line of 
march was assailed by the burghers of St. Gall, divided 
into several small detachments, from which considerable 
loss was sustained by the ducal force at Hauptlisberg. 

h 3 



102 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1408. 



The duke was sorely stung by this disgraceful reverse ; 
but stiii more so by the news of the disastrous rout at 
the Stoss. He had now recourse to artifice for revenge; 
and giving out that he designed to retreat from Arbon 
to the TyroL, 'he drew his forces off towards the Rhine ; 
bu^ on arriving at the village of Thai, he wheeled his 
troops suddenly round; and led them up the Wolfshald, 
towards Appenzell. He hoped to take the pastoral po- 
pulation by surprise ; but his intention was already 
known at Appenzell. Four hundred men rushed down 
on the disorderly troops of Austria; who were toiling 
upwards without the least apprehension or precaution. 
They had time; however, to take a strong position in a 
churchyard, and the battle w 7 as fought obstinately on 
both sides. At length; the Austrian lines were again 
broken; and the ducal army driven down the Wolfshald 
with enormous slaughter. The duke w T as by this time 
really sick of the contest; and retreated to the Tyrol in 
good earnest. 

The hitherto unheard name of Appenzell was now 
spread far and wide by renown. Even during the winter 
months they besieged the castle of BregenZ; which had 
often annoyed the neighbouring inhabitants. But they 
were blinded by the self-reliance grounded on good 
fortune; so far as to utter open threats against the Swabian 
nobles; and thus raise up new allies to their enemy. 
A combination was formed against them; called the St. 
George's Shield; or League ; and their scattered bands; 
enfeebled by the rigours of winter; -were attacked on the 
13th of January; 1408; at break of day; by a body of 
above 8000 w T ell-armed warriors.- They rallied their 
force as well as they were able ; but notwithstanding 
the determined stand which they made; in which their 
captain fell; they were at length compelled to retreat; 
with the loss of many prisoners; and of all their pre- 
parations for a siege. But so imposing w T as the memory 
of their tried and proved valour; that their most em- 
bittered enemies could not stimulate the conquerors^ 
however superior in number; to molest their retreat. 



1412. INDEPENDENCE OF APPENZELL. 103 

The Appenzellers themselves were disposed to terms 
of peace by this disaster, and made a compromise with 
the nobles and the abbot, by which the latter was finally 
compelled to acknowledge their independence ; and duke 
Frederick of Austria having recovered his possessions, 
the cause of warfare ceased in that quarter. They confined 
themselves thenceforwards to the defence of their own 
freedom, which they sought to secure by alliances with 
powerful lords in their neighbourhood ; but still more 
by procuring themselves reception from the confederacy : 
not, indeed, into the rank of a separate canton, but into 
the number of their citizens and countrymen. The 
conditions on which this privilege was granted them 
were directed to secure the confederates from entangle- 
ment in unnecessary warfare, through the ardour and 
irritability of the Appenzellers. To this end the latter 
were obliged to promise never to take up arms without 
the consent of the confederates ; to give them aid in all 
future wars with their whole force ; while, in wars 
undertaken on their own account, they contented them- 
selves with such aid only as the confederates might 
choose to afford, and for which Appenzell was besides 
to pay. Moreover, the confederates reserved the right 
of adding to, or taking from, the articles of the treaty 
at their discretion » 

The confederates could look without alarm to the 
approaching close of the Twenty Years' Peace, for their 
freedom and repose were firmly established, while the 
former predominance of Austria existed now no longer 
in Switzerland. Confusion and distress prevailed on all 
sides, — in Germany, in France, in Spain, in Italy, and, 
most of all, in the ecclesiastical state. The confe- 
deracy alone enjoyed order and repose. The wars of 
princes at that time were carried on with unwieldy 
heavy cavalry, and their infantry was wretched. But 
the Swiss understood the art of war better. Compelled 
to fight on foot by their poverty, as well as by the 
nature of the country, and opposed for the most part to 

H 4f 



104 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1412. 



superior numbers, they were forced to watch atten- 
tively every advantage, to trust to a resolute onset and 
immovable steadiness, and to baffle by their quickness 
of manoeuvre the unwieldy numerical force of their 
antagonists. Thus the confederacy stood prepared for 
all events when the peace of twenty years came to a 
close. Duke Frederick of Austria wished to prolong it ; 
and in order to obtain this end he was obliged, besides 
conceding other points to the confederates, to confirm 
for fifty years their possession of all the conquests ac- 
tually held by themselves or their allies of Soleure and 
Appenzell. Thus a century after the Austrian pride and 
arrogance had commenced the war against the freedom 
of Switzerland, the latter had come so triumphantly out 
of the conflict, that duke Frederick was glad to conclude 
a treaty with them on any terms. 



CHAP. VII. 

FROM THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE TO THE BATTLE OF 
ARBEDO. 

1414^1422. 

STATE OF THE CONFEDERATION. OF THE CHURCH. GREAT 

SCHISM. COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. FLIGHT OF POPE JOHN. 

OUTLAWRY OF FREDERICK DUKE OF AUSTRIA. CON- 
QUESTS OF THE CONFEDERATES. ERECTION OF FREE BAI- 
LIWICKS. CAPTURE AND DEPOSITION OF POPE JOHN. DIS- 
SOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. FRANCESCO 

POGGIO. GIPSIES. THE MAZZE. FEUD OF URI AND 

UNTERWALDEN WITH PHILIP VISCONTI DUKE OF MILAN. 

MARCH OF THE SWISS ON BELLINZONA. BATTLE OF ARBEDO. 

The history of the Swiss has been traced in the fore- 
going pages since the loss of their original savage 
freedom : w r e have seen them in the power of foreign 
nations ; we have hailed the re-appearance of their 
native spirit, the vigour and good fortune which ac- 



1418. 



STATE OF THE CONFEDERATION. 



105 



companied their struggles with their powerful an- 
tagonists. But precisely this good fortune induced 
gradual deviations from the noble maxim on which 
their league was founded, that of making friends in- 
stead of acquiring subjects. This deviation had already- 
become perceptible in the towns which we have seen 
acquiring new domains by conquest or purchase ; it 
has already been remarked in Schwytz and Uri ; and 
the recital of the following transactions will present 
it in a still clearer light, and will also display its 
natural effects in the perilous out-breakings of intes- 
tine feud and civil discord. The aggrandisement of 
particular cantons excited the envy of others, which 
was inflamed to the highest degree by the sustained and 
sedulous efforts which the former made to preserve and 
to increase their acquisitions. As at this time the body 
of confederates had no reason to fear attacks from any 
of their neighbours, the feeling of reciprocal obligation 
died away by degrees among themselves. The previous 
bonds of union became relaxed so much the sooner as 
the confederates had yet to receive such lessons from 
experience as were bestowed in later times on their 
descendants : vanity and selfishness usurped the place of 
public spirit ; and even when the leading men in a 
canton were not actuated by personal ambition or rapa- 
city, they took it for a proof of the purest patriotism to 
aggrandise their canton at the expense of the rest, and 
did not renounce their projects of aggrandisement, 
though they endangered the peace, or even the existence, 
of the confederacy. We shall presently see Zurich, in 
alliance, first with Austria, and afterwards with France, 
contending, during fourteen years, with its utmost 
strength and energies, against the other confederates 
united. A war from which this, if no other lesson may 
be extracted, that the same people is capable of the 
brightest or the darkest deeds, according as it yields to 
the sway of pure or impure impulses. 

The affairs of the church about this time arrested the 



106 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1414. 



attention of governments as well as individual enquirers. 
The disorders of the ecclesiastical polity, and the evils 
thereby engendered, had increased in rapid progression. 
Negligence of their functions and encroachments over 
their limits on the part of the clergy brought contempt 
on their order. The consequences of this contempt 
were schisms and ghostly extravagances, in spite of the 
exertions made by a few superior spirits, who, so far 
as was allowed by prevailing prejudices, endeavoured to 
disseminate sounder ideas on religious subjects. It was 
now that those Flagellants appeared, who were not to be 
satisfied with the penances of the strictest monastic 
orders. These were followed by the Beghards and Be- 
guines, whose associations originally were framed for 
laudable objects, but soon collected crowds of idle vaga- 
bonds, and encouraged all the rude exaggerations of 
false devotion. The Beghards were first favoured then 
suppressed, and their places of meeting, for instance at 
Basle, transferred to institutions of charity. Precau- 
tions were adopted against them, as well as against their 
hordes of sturdy beggars, and all deviations in matters 
of faith were visited in some places, Berne for example, 
with the correction of fire and sword. 

Three popes, of whom each had his own phalanx of 
adherents, then stood in opposition to each other. The 
original constitution of the church had been abandoned 
many centuries back, in which the bishops issued orders 
in all clerical concerns, as the overseers of spiritual com- 
munities. On the other hand, the doctrine of one 
visible head of the church had gradually obtained the 
ascendency ; and thus from a plurality of popes, each 
anathematising the others, arose manifold perplexities. 
Nor had the horrible persecutions of the Albigenses, 
against whom a crusade had been preached, sufficed to 
crush the efforts of those who sought to restore the 
church in some measure to its primitive form. These 
efforts w T ere revived by the Waldenses. In England, 
where from time to time clear views on the subject had 



1414. COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 107 

contended with the pretensions of the hierarchy, John 
Wiclifre, in the latter half of the fourteenth century, 
strove against a whole host of clerical abuses, combated 
the frauds of the mendicant friars, and translated the 
Holy Scriptures into his mother tongue. He, too, was 
assailed with the accustomed persecutions ; but a part 
of his doctrines strayed to a congenial soil in Bohemia, 
and found a distinguished apostle in John Huss, whom 
the council of Constance afterwards condemned to the 
stake, in contravention of its own safe- conduct. 

The necessity of church reform began to be felt in all 
Europe ; and, through the exertions of the emperor, a 
general assembly of the church was, after many delays, 
appointed to be held at Constance, towards the close of 
the year 1414, at which the desired reformation was to 
be carried into effect by a council of the higher clergy, 
sitting in the presence of the emperor, and assisted by a 
numerous body of princes and of delegates from almost 
every country in Europe. Of the three anti-popes, 
John XXIII. alone, and with reluctance, had appeared 
on the summons. But when he found that his own 
nomination to the popedom was to be brought in ques- 
tion, he betook himself to flight, in breach of his pro- 
mise, abetted by duke Frederick of Austria. This 
conduct drew on the latter the ban of the empire, ac- 
companied by the interdict of the council. He was, 
besides, charged with various other offences, and de- 
clared to have forfeited his fief. Many lords, lay as 
well as clerical, of whom most had been the former 
friends of Frederick, hastened to declare themselves 
against the outlaw. The confederates were called to aid 
against the former enemy, in execution of the ban of 
the empire ; but the proposal that they should violate 
a treaty which had so recently been sworn for fifty 
years excited very reasonable scruples. The council, 
indeed, promised them absolution from that as well as 
all their other sins ; and the emperor guaranteed to 
them the permanent possession of whatever lands they 
might conquer from their hereditary enemy : but the 



108 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1415. 



forest can ton s, as also Zurich, Zug, Lucerne, and 
Glarus, remained as yet inaccessible to sophistry or 
temptation. On the other hand, Berne was anxious to 
embrace an opportunity so favourable for extending her 
own territory, and striking a finishing blow to the power 
of Austria in her neighbourhood. Accordingly, on the 
repeated calls of the emperor and the council, to which 
the other confederates still delayed obedience, Berne 
armed without waiting for their concurrence. This 
aroused the jealousy of Zurich, who would not stay 
behind and lose her share in the booty. Finally, the 
rest of the confederacy gave in to the example of their 
principal colleagues ; Appenzell and Uri were the only 
places which still held out. In order to avoid sharing 
their expected spoils with their colleagues, the Bernese 
promptly took the field, before any of the others were 
in readiness, marched into the Aargau, and besieged 
Zoflngen. A diet had been held at Sur by the lords 
and towns of the Aargau, at which it had been proposed 
to seek an alliance with the confederates, and admission 
into the rank of a new canton. This was frustrated by 
the influence of the nobles, who maintained a firm 
attachment to Austria. On this it was resolved by the 
towns to apply for the protection of the confederacy. 
Too late ! the Swiss banners were already over the fron- 
tiers, and Berne, as usual, foremost of all. In eight 
days, with very trifling losses, the Aargau, as far as the 
Beuss, was in their hands. 

At Freyburg in Brisgau, where Frederick and the 
pope had taken refuge, one messenger of misfortune fol- 
lowed another. The revolt of large numbers of his vas- 
sals, the loss of the Thurgau, of the Aargau, of Alsace, 
the popular discontent in the dominions yet remaining 
to him, were announced to the unfortunate duke in quick 
and stunning succession. Such a series of reverses at 
length broke his resolution; and preventing the escape 
of the pope who still continued obstinate, he repaired to 
Constance to lender his submissions at the feet of the 
emperor, who vouchsafed his gracious pardon on con- 



1415. 



FREE BAILIWICKS. 



109 



dition of the pope being delivered up, and the duke's 
whole domains being surrendered into his (the emperor's) 
keeping, until he should graciously please to give them 
back to his repentant vassal. After many months of 
humiliation, and a few abortive sallies of impatience, the 
powerful mediation of duke Ernest, Frederick's brother, 
procured the restoration of the bulk of his lands, and 
the removal of the ban and sentence of outlawry. 

While Frederick was making his submissions at Con- 
stance, the confederates were besieging his castle of 
Baden, which they had captured, before any notice ar- 
rived of the suspension of hostilities. The imperial 
heralds of peace were within a league's distance of Ba- 
den, when the strong and splendid fortress, from which 
Albert had menaced the forest cantons, where the ex- 
peditions to Morgarten and Sempach had been planned, 
and where the Austrian princes often held their courts, 
was already in flames. The emperor expressed great 
indignation, and demanded that the confederates should 
give their conquests up to the empire. They replied by 
an appeal to the imperial guarantee by which the per- 
manent possession of their conquests had been assured 
to them; and when the emperor persisted in his de- 
mands, he was given to understand that these who had 
made the conquests in question would not so easily be 
persuaded to abandon them. This hint induced the 
emperor to content himself with a sum of money, in 
consideration of which he allowed the confederates to 
retain their acquisitions in perpetual mortgage. The 
delegates of Uri renounced all participation in the newly 
conquered lands of the confederacy, and excited the de- 
rision of their less magnanimous colleagues by proposing 
to relinquish them to the emperor, in order not to vie- 
late the truce with Austria. The six other cantons came 
to an agreement on the subject of their common acqui- 
sitions, that each in turn should appoint a bailiff over 
them for two years, and that an annual account of their 
administration should be given. 



110 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1415. 



If in the establishment of these common, or, so called, 
free bailiwicks, the confederates swerved from the more 
enlarged policy of their fathers (who- had received 
Glarus and Zug into the rank of their confederates), and 
showed that they wished rather to possess indifferent 
subjects than friends and fellow- combatants in the cause 
of common freedom, yet the system of rotation in the 
government of the conquered lands might probably ex- 
cite less aversion in their inhabitants than would have 
been caused by a partition of districts which had pre- 
viously composed one jurisdiction. Gross administra- 
tive abuses were at that time out of the question. Sove- 
reignty was exercised in a spirit of great mildness and 
indulgence to the independent feelings of its subjects. 
Nevertheless the subsequent abuses in the government 
of these common bailiwicks, the political insignificance 
to which their population was consigned, and the moral 
evils thereby engendered, remain a warning example of 
the consequences produced by all deviations from the 
path of correct principle. 

After Frederick's submission, the elector of Branden- 
burg was employed to secure, by fair or forcible means, 
the pope's person. John was brought a prisoner to 
Constance ; the council made enquiries into his course 
of life from youth upwards; found it to have been 
highly vicious and scandalous ; declared him to be more 
deserving of death at the stake than the papal chair, and 
pronounced a formal sentence of deposition. . John lived 
several years in easy custody ; was afterwards released, 
and went to Florence, where he was favourably received 
by his successor, and died cardinal bishop of Frascati. 
The choice of a new pope (Martin V.), which, by an 
improvident or insidious vote of the council, was made 
to precede the farther agitation of the points of which 
the discussion had formed their original object in meet- 
ing, restored, indeed, the unity of the papal power, but 
not the order or discipline of the church, whose new 
head thought nothing of such urgent importance as to 
bring about the speedy dissolution of an assembly, the 



1418. CARDINAL POGGIO. GIPSIES. Ill 

very existence of which he viewed as a menace to the 
hierarchy. 

Cardinal Poggio, one of the first men of what was 
then the first nation of Europe,, present at this council, 
has left us a description of the gaieties attending it, 
which exhibits Swiss manners in amusing contrast with 
those of Italy. In Switzerland, and the neighbouring 
regions of Germany, the mode of life in all classes was 
homely and domestic, but by no means sombre or mo- 
rose. They loved the song and dance ; and, in their 
melodies, pious hymns or martial strains alternated with 
love-songs. Their games were of an athletic or bur- 
lesque kind : gambling was as little in the habits as in 
the laws of the people. Though the birth of illegiti- 
mate children was not a rare occurrence, it appears, 
according to Poggio, almost incredible how utterly un- 
suspecting was the confidence of parents and husbands. 
This may partly be accounted for by the general turn to 
gaiety, incompatible with dark distrust or deep-laid ma- 
chinations. Poggio compares the mode of life which he 
found at the baths of Baden to the ancient Greek de- 
scriptions of the games of the goddess of Paphos. 

The multitude of masterless servants, forsaken fe- 
males, and vagabonds of every description, whom cu- 
riosity, or the hope of easy winnings, under the pretext 
of devotion, had collected at Constance, leagued them- 
selves with the bands of sturdy beggars who had long 
formed a kind of confraternity. About this time, too, 
swarms of unknown strangers made their appearance, 
brown in complexion, foreign in aspect, ill supplied with 
clothing : their leader was named Michael, or, as he 
styled himself, duke Michael of Egypt : his followers 
were known by the name of Cingari or Zingari (in Ger- 
man, Zigeuner, gipsies). So little was known of oriental 
languages in those times, that these adventurers could 
tell what tales they pleased about their origin. * They 
pretended to have come from Lower Egypt, and to 
belong to the number of those who had not received 

* Miiller, iii. 115. 



112 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1418. 



Joseph and Mary; that they had now become Christians, 
and were bound on a seven years' pilgrimage. It has 
at length been conjectured, from their language, that 
they were driven out by the great convulsions of India, 
when the dynasty of the sultan of Ghaur was overthrown 
by Pir Mohammed Jehan Ghir, the grandson of Tirnur. 

The council of Constance had not yet been closed, 
and the conquest of the Aargau was but newly com- 
pleted, when a fresh source of disquietude was opened. 
Even in remote antiquity, traces of a lively love of 
freedom had displayed themselves in the Valais. That 
district had maintained a brave though unsuccessful 
struggle with Rome ; and had always known how to 
vindicate and extend its freedom against Savoy, and other 
powerful enemies, whether external or internal. When, 
in 1411, the confederates surprised and took possession 
of the valleys of Ossola, the baron Guiscard of Raron, 
captain-general of the Valais, and co-burgher of Berne, 
had allowed certain contemptuous expressions to escape 
him, which had deeply offended the irritable warriors of 
the forest cantons : accordingly they sent one of their 
leading men to Berne to deliver their complaints against 
Raron. Berne replied that it was not in her power to 
procure satisfaction for them, as Raron's right of citizen- 
ship had already expired for some time. The forest 
cantons now applied to the Valaisans themselves, by 
whom the power of the family of Raron had long been 
felt oppressive and dangerous. Guiscard himself lay 
under the imputation of hating, out of innate pride, all 
popular sovereignty ; and of leaning more to the houses 
of Milan and Savoy than consisted with his duties as a 
burgher of the Valais. The popular resentment having 
now come to a head, it was resolved to crush the baron 
and his family ; but lest the ringleaders of so bold an 
undertaking should incur danger, an old custom was 
brought into play to agitate the people. 

A young birch was pulled up by the roots, on which 
was fixed a human countenance rudely carved in wood, 
and wearing the expression of grief, Below this, in the 



U<13. 



THE MAZZE. 



113 



stem of the tree, a nail was driven by each of the plot- 
ters, which symbolised a solemn engagement to persevere 
in their enterprise. In the night this figure, commonly 
called a mazze, was bound to a tree on a well frequented 
thoroughfare. On the following morning, crowds of 
passing wayfarers gathered round the tree ; the agitators 
mixed with them, and thus ascertained the popular tem- 
per. As soon as they found it favourable (i. e. disposed 
for plunder and violence), a bold and well-spoken man 
stepped forth as master of the Mazze, unbound it from 
the tree, and set it up on an open space beside him. 
Questions were then addressed to the figure ; as, (e Mazze, 
what is your pleasure ? " and its patron was requested 
to reply for it. At first he refused with well-assumed 
embarrassment ; but at last, affecting merely to comply 
with the will of the people, he turned to the Mazze ; 
" Mazze, these good people are willing to help you ; — 
speak, — name the man whom you are afraid of. Is it 
the Sillinen — the Asperling — the Henngarten ? " (names 
of powerful families in the Valais). The Mazze stood 
immovable. " Is it the baron of Raron ? " The Mazze 
bowed its head, and the master stood beside it in a sup- 
plicating attitude. He then addressed the multitude ; 
ec Brave men, you have heard whom the Mazze com- 
plains of ; whoever will fight for the Mazze, let him hold 
up his hand !" A majority instantly showed itself in 
favour of the Mazze, and all law and order were sus- 
pended. The summons went through the whole land 
to the rescue of the Mazze : the obnoxious baron's castles 
and estates, as well as those of his relatives, friends, and 
dependants, were sacked by a furious multitude ; and 
nothing but a rapid flight could have saved the lives of 
those who were thus solemnly devoted to the vengeance 
of the people. 

The Swiss had already marched over the Penine Alps 
about the commencement of this (the fifteenth) century, 
and had permanently occupied the Eschenthal and the 
Val Levantina. These conquests drew on them the se- 
verest check they had hitherto met with. Philip Maria 



114 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1422. 



Visconti, duke of Milan, whose brother had lost the 
lands in question, took every means to regain them : he 
succeeded, by dint of dexterous negotiation, in obtaining 
from the count of Sax Misox, the owner of Bellinzona, 
a promise that he would cede the town which com- 
manded the pass into Italy southwards, and into the Val 
Levantina northwards. Uri and Unterwalden, however, 
obtained by purchase the promised domains ; threw a 
garrison into the town ; obtained a confirmation of their 
title from the emperor, and took a position which ad- 
mirably covered their own possessions, while it offered 
every facility of attack on the Milanese. Visconti would 
have purchased back Bellinzona from the confederates, 
but found his proposals rejected, and was reduced to 
intrigue in silence : he watched his opportunities for 
more than a year and a half, while the confederate gar- 
rison gave itself up to a dangerous security. In the 
mean time he formed traitorous connections in the town 
itself; and, on the first occasion which offered, his ge- 
neral, Agnolo della Pergola, surprised and took Beliin., 
zona, allowed the Swiss free egress, and took possession 
of the Val Levantina as far as the St. Gothard. So soon 
as this was known to the men of Uri and of Unterwal- 
den, they made no doubt that the confederates would 
instantly take up arms to avenge the affront aimed, 
through their sides, at the whole Helvetic body. 

But the views of the confederates were exceedingly 
divided on the expediency, as well as on the duty, of 
maintaining these acquisitions on Italian ground. At 
length assistance was promised by Lucerne, Schwytz, 
Nidwalden, Zug, and Glarus. The troops of Lucerne, 
Uri, Zug, and Unterwalden, 3000 strong, took the field, 
without waiting for the rest, and reached Bellinzona 
without meeting with any opposition. Here, however, 
they were encountered by an army far superior to their 
own, commanded by the most distinguished officers in 
Italy, and sustained at Arbedo, not indeed an entire 
defeat, but severe loss. Disunited and discouraged, the 
confederates marched homewards. Success, which had 



1422. 



BATTLE OF ARBEDO. 



115 



invariably crowned their arms against the Germans, for- 
sook them now for the first time, when opposed to the 
troops of Italy. 

In the following year, after much negotiation, and 
many conferences, the confederates concluded a peace 
with the duke, not on Swiss soil, hut amidst Italian 
influences, of which this treaty bears the stamp in its 
very phraseology. The cantons are termed communes. 
All their conquests were abandoned — all the title-deeds 
and the imperial confirmations of them given up. 



CHAP. VIII. 

WAR OP THE CONFEDERATES WITH ZURICH. 

1436—1450. 

INHERITANCE OF FREDERICK COUNT OF TOGGENBURG. DIS- 
PUTES OF SCHWYTZ AND GLARUS WITH ZURICH. FEUD OF 

SEVERAL CANTONS WITH ZURICH. PEACE. LEAGUE 

OF ZURICH WITH AUSTRIA. ALL THE CONFEDERATES 

AGAINST ZURICH. THE ROTTEN PEACE. RENEWAL OF THE 

WAR. DAUPHIN OF FRANCE ATTACKS BASLE AT THE HEAD 

OF A BODY OF ARMAGNACS. BATTLE OF ST. JACOB ON THE 

SIRS. LOUIS OFFERS TO MEDIATE PEACE BETWEEN ZURICH 

AND THE CONFEDERATES. INTELLECTUAL CULTURE IN THE 

FIFTEENTH CENTURY. SCHOOLS. DECLINE OF POETRY. 

FELIX HAM MERLIN OR MALLEOLUS. INSTANCES OF POPU- 
LAR SUPERSTITION. 

The confederates might have already learned from 
experience how much disunion weakened thein, and 
lessened the respect entertained by foreign powers for 
their collective force. But their recently made conquests 
had evoked amongst them the evil spirits of jealousy and 
ambition. An unreflecting impulse towards aggrandise- 
ment had rendered them insensible to the constant truth, 
that no strength is imparted by constrained and disaf- 
fected subjects^ and that no acquisitions would com- 

i 2 



116 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1436, 

pensate the bitterness thus engendered amongst them. 
The evil was augmented by the influence of leading men, 
who knew how to communicate to the states in which 
they presided the contagion of their individual passions, 
and took a pride in making their preponderating influ- 
ence universally perceived and acknowledged, Zurich 
not only separated herself from her confederates, but 
threw herself completely into the arms of the common 
enemy; while even the democratic canton of Schwytz 
gave itself up to ambitious projects of aggrandisement. 

Count Frederick of Toggenburg had accepted, in the 
year 1400, the co-burghership of Zurich, partly moved 
by feelings of distrust towards Austria, partly to procure 
himself a point d'appui in Switzerland itself against the 
power of the confederation. The rigours which he ex- 
ercised on his subjects, while the example of the con- 
quering people of Appenzell encouraged the oppressed to 
resistance, rendered alliance very desirable with a place 
of leading importance, through which he might make 
himself sure of the confederates. He renewed his right 
of citizenship in 1405, and, besides, obtained the freedom 
of Schwytz. 

Rudolf Stussi, burgomaster of Zurich, at that time 
stood in high consideration with the count, and with the 
rest of the confederates; but, unfortunately, he knew not 
how to bear his honours meekly. It happened that his 
son, when on a visit to count Frederick, made himself 
laughed at for his arrogance by the count's young rela- 
tions, as well as the other young nobles at his court. 
The count endeavoured to pacify Stussi's resentment on 
the occasion ; but the irritated vanity of a blinded father 
rendered the latter forgetful of the dignity of his station 
no less than of the good of his country. The confidence of 
his countrymen, and his own distinguished position among 
them, were by no means enough to satisfy his preten- 
sions, so long as others were not compelled to feel their 
whole weight. The count soon afterwards lost a law- 
suit at Zurich against the inhabitants of Siegberg, by a 
sentence which he considered an unjust one. In conse- 



1436. INHERITANCE OF TOGGENBURG. 117 

quence, when Zurich desired that Frederick should 
name his heir, in order to know to whom he meant to 
transfer his civic rights ; the count held out hopes that 
he meant to name his wife, the countess Elizabeth, who 
was particularly attached to the Zurichers ; but, instead 
of this, he fixed on other relations, and shortly before his 
death he agreed with Schwytz upon a permanent juris- 
diction over Toggenburg and Uznach, with reserve of 
the time which the common rights with Zurich had yet 
to run. He left his wife only the life-rent of his inhe- 
ritance, and died on the 30th of April, 1436, having, as 
some thought, purposely aimed in his last testamentary 
dispositions at throwing matter of discord among the 
confederates. 

The heirs, supported by Schwytz and Berne, of which 
some of them were burghers, proceeded to enforce their 
claims. Schwytz exacted oaths of allegiance in Tuggen 
and the Upper March. Zurich endeavoured to gain for 
herself Gaster and Sargans, which were divided by dis- 
putes among themselves, and made an alliance with the 
countess, who bequeathed the domain of Uznach to the 
town. On the refusal of the leading people of Uznach 
to acknowledge the bequest, and to do homage to Zurich 
Stussi exclaimed, in order to intimidate them, " Know 
ye not your very bowels belong to us?" Arrogant 
treatment only rouses the spirit of those who are not 
utterly sunk in apathy; and the threats of Stussi served 
but to add strength to the decision of the people of Uz- 
nach. Similar results took place at Gaster and Win deck, 
whose inhabitants wished to be subjected to Austria 
rather than to Zurich. The Zurichers begged the 
friendly mediation of Schwytz ; but the latter, instead of 
meeting their advances, entered into close alliance with 
the people of Glarus, who found it for their interest 
themselves to take possession of the territory claimed by 
Zurich. The projects of aggrandisement pursued by 
Stussi at Zurich were rivalled in Schwytz and Glarus by 
Ital Reding and Jost Tschudi ; but the latter were 
discreet enough to keep their personal enmities subor- 

i 3 



118 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1437. 



dinate to worthier ends. On both sides,, however, the 
desire to aggrandise their own cantons and their own 
persons induced forgetfulness of the common good of 
their country and of concord, on which its strength and 
happiness mainly depended. 

In the early part of the year 1437, Zurich and Schwytz 
had already posted troops on their frontiers, when the 
confederates made haste to interpose their mediation, 
and appointed a diet to be held at Lucerne. The dele- 
gates were incessantly employed during four weeks in 
holding consultations, or in offering propositions to the 
opposite parties. They separated at length without 
having come to any conclusion ; ■ and it was agreed to 
hold a new assembly of nineteen arbitrators, chosen 
from the five neutral cantons and the town of Soleure. 

The second attempt at arbitration failed as the first 
had done, because the terms proposed appeared, not alto- 
gether without reason, to indicate on the part of the (so 
called) impartial confederates something like a leaning 
towards the side of Schwytz and Glarus, if not a 
decided plan for the humiliation of Zurich. A third 
meeting, attended by delegates from several of the free 
towns of the empire, as well as by all those of the con- 
federacy, met with no better success than the two former; 
for by this time Schwytz would no longer hear of com- 
promise of any kind, being exasperated by Zurich hav- 
ing taken into co-burghership the people of the count of 
Werdenberg-Sargans, who had previously contracted a 
common league with themselves and Glarus. Further 
attempts to negotiate were to equally little purpose. 
Zurich, more and more disposed to violent measures by 
the sense of having suffered injustice, appealed to the 
arbitration of the emperor, without, however, choosing 
to comply with his orders, that they should open a free 
market, and transit of goods to Schwytz and Glarus. 
Still, however, a hollow truce was prolonged, and the 
parties appeared at Berne, on the invitation of the neutral 
cantons, where a general meeting was held by the 
council and the delegates of the cantons, and a declar- 



1440. 



WAR WITH ZURICH. 



119 



ation issued^ which was afterwards communicated to the 
disagreeing parties. On receiving it, the Zurichers pro- 
tested against the menace which it held out on the part 
of the neutral cantons., of intervention with their whole 
force in case of its rejection. The league of the confede- 
racy, they said, did not include freedom of trade or 
transport ; and amongst the ancient rights which had 
been reserved in its formation, one of the principal ones 
was the right of appeal to the emperor. 

In a diet at Zug, in the spring of 1440, Zurich 
refused any unconditional recognition of the rights of the 
confederates, and renewed its prohibition of all exports, 
while Schwytz and Glarus renewed theirs in the articles 
of wood, hay, &c. Moreover, Zurich blocked up the 
transmission through her territories to those cantons cf 
all rents and dues, whether from monasteries or private 
persons. On the other hand, Schwytz and Glarus sud- 
denly took possession of Sargans, where the formerly 
arrogant partisans of Zurich surrendered without even a 
show of resistance, and consented to renounce their rights 
of co-burghership w T ith that town. Both sides gave 
notice to the confederates; and Zurich, ever disposed to 
rely on uncertain hopes and vague expressions, reposed 
too much dependence upon several of the cantons. 
Schwytz and Glarus now declared war against Zurich, 
and took up, with above 2000 troops, a position on the 
Etzel, while a superior force of Zurichers hastened to 
post themselves near Pfeffikon. Troops arrived from 
Uri and from Unterwalden, which had hitherto delayed 
to espouse either side in the contest. Their choice be- 
tween the two contending parties was determined by a 
chance exclamation of one of their own comrades. 
" God forbid/' said the standard-bearer of Uri, Werner 
der Frauen, (i that I should bear my country's banner 
against those who have all along made their appeal to 
the judgment of the league, and in favour of the rebels 
who renounce it." Both these cantons now broke with 
Zurich ; and thus the flame of war at length burst 
forth in the fifth year since the origin of civil dissen- 

i 4 



120 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1440. 



sion. A sudden panic struck the troops of Zurich, who 
fled over the lake to the town in the night of the 5 th of 
October, and thus completely lost the confidence of the 
neighbouring population, which in several districts had 
not been long subject to Zurich, and were now with ease 
converted from her adherents to her enemies. The troops 
of Zug, Lucerne, Berne, and Soleure, now advanced into 
the territory of Zurich , and the whole Argovian nobility 
made common cause with Berne ; as Zurich had become 
extremely obnoxious to them by her conduct towards the 
heirs of count Toggenburg and Austria ; and the cause 
of the confederates seemed for once to be identified with 
that of the nobles. Such is the speedy punishment of 
that grave political error committed by those who make 
themselves many enemies at once, without secure or 
sufficient aids and alliances. 

Fire, slaughter, and depredation, now laid waste the 
lands of Zurich, nourishing with the fruits of a long 
peace, and so lately enjoying the highest consideration 
in the confederacy. The miserable peasantry sought to 
save themselves, and the remnant of their property, in 
the town. Zurich at length acknowledged the authority of 
the league ; but now Schwytz andGlarus claimed to retain 
the conquests which they had made for themselves and 
their confederates. At length, however, terms of pacifi- 
cation were adjusted under the presidency of the Bernese 
leader, Henry of Bubenberg. Whatever had been lost 
by Zurich across the lake of Wallenstadt was to remain 
in the possession of Schwytz and Glarus, — all other claims 
to be settled in conformity with the common rights of 
the confederacy, — freedom of traffic and intercourse re- 
established, — Zurich making a reservation only in the 
article of foreign wine. 

The disadvantageous terms of this peace, above all the 
territorial cessions to Schwytz and Glarus, which formed 
the first example of conquests made by confederates over 
each other, had filled the hearts of the Zurichers with 
bitterness, while the dissolution of union among the con- 
federates had revived the hopes as well of the Argovian 



1442. LEAGUE OF ZURICH WITH AUSTRIA. 121 

nobility as of all the other friends and adherents of 
Austria. Stussi and his party at Zurich sought to re- 
trieve their fallen reputation at all risks. They applied 
to the Austrian margrave, William of Hochberg, offered 
to cede Kyburg to the emperor, and finally entered into 
an alliance offensive and defensive with the house of 
Austria. Zurich, indeed, expressly reserved the rights 
of the confederacy; but the incompatibility of those 
rights with the objects of this new league was too ob- 
vious not too justify surprise and displeasure on the part 
of the other confederates. To natter the resentment of 
Zurich, as well as to set up a new combination against 
the hated league of the Swiss, a new confederation was 
agreed upon, under the presidency of Zurich and the 
guidance of Austria, in which the Austrian districts, the 
bishoprics of Coire and Constance, the abbot of St. Gall, 
several secular lords and towns, Appenzell and St. Gall, 
should be included. 

The confederates demanded explanations from the 
Zurichers, with regard to their league with Austria ; and 
the latter sought to justify themselves by alleging the 
restrictions contained in it, and the necessity under 
which they lay of securing their foreign trade. Con- 
stantly shifting diets and decisions succeeded each other 'a 
Schwytz, in disgust, refused to send her delegates to a 
meeting at Baden ; and Zurich refused to appear at an- 
another, to account for her league with Austria. A 
numerous division of her trcops had already adopted the 
red cross, the distinguishing badge of that power, and 
many displayed the hated peacock's feather on their 
crest. The troops of Schwytz now posted themselves on 
their frontier, declared war on the Austrians and the 
Zurichers, and repelled, though not without loss, an at- 
tack of their forces near Freyenbach. Without any 
fixed plan, the margrave and Stussi advanced with 
5000 men over the Albis towards Zug, burned Blick- 
enstorf, and retreated over the hill again with at least 
equal rapidity, when the banners of Lucerne, Uri, and 
Unterwalden, unexpectedly came in sight 



122 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 



1443. 



All the confederates now united their fortes against 
Zurich , and 5000 or 6000 troops marched over the 
Aibis, on the town itself, on the 22 d of July,, 1443. 
The garrison and burghers made an obstinate stand, 
under the double disadvantage of surprise and want of 
discipline. Thrown into confusion by a manoeuvre of 
the enemy, they retreated with considerable loss into 
the town, which only escaped capture through the want 
of order in the attack. Stussi died as a hero, if he had 
erred as a politician ; and contributed much, by the 
stand which he made at the bridge over the Sihl, to the 
rescue of his unfortunate native city. 

From Zurich the confederates marched to Baden, and 
to Rappersweil, and laid siege in vain to the latter place. 
The stout defence of the town brought about an armis- 
tice ; the bad observance of which, and ill- concealed aim 
of gaining time, acquired for it the name of the rotten 
'peace. Both sides employed the interval of truce to add 
to their forces. The emperor and duke Sigismund 
sought aid of France and Burgundy. The confederates 
compelled the district of Griiningen into allegiance. At 
a diet at Baden, in March (1444), the clerical and lay 
lords and free towns could bring about no compromise 
between Zurich and the confederates. When the pas- 
sions of men in power and of the multitude are excited, 
there may be more danger in speaking truth to a coun- 
tryman, than difficulty in conquering an enemy. Three 
burghers of Zurich lost their lives in a popular tumult, 
being charged with having shown some leaning towards 
the cause of the confederates at Baden. 

The confederates drew their forces together at Cloten 
for a new campaign. They were now, moreover, joined 
by the men of Appenzell. Greifensee was defended 
for four weeks against their whole force by the steady 
valour of Wildhans of Breiten-Landenberg, the com- 
mander of a small but faithful garrison. No diversion 
was attempted from Zurich ; and these undaunted men, 
cut off from all succour, were finally forced to surrender 
at discretion. The success of the confederates was 



1444. 



BATTLE OF ST. JACOB. 



123 



stained by the decapitation of sixty- two of the garrison, 
promoted by the landamman of Schwytz, Ital Reding. 
The honest captain Holzach of Menzingen was de- 
nounced as a friend of Austria, by that young but savage 
chieftain, for daring to plead the cause of common hu- 
manity. The conquerors, who, except on urgent emer- 
gencies, never left their hearths for any long period 
returned homewards, but soon united again for the siege 
of Zurich. 

But now was Switzerland threatened on the west by 
a new enemy, the dauphin of France (afterwards Louis 
XI.) at the head of a formidable body of Armagnacs. 
These were troops of the same description as those 
which, under Ingelram de Coucy, had already ravaged 
part of Switzerland. Bernard, count of Armagnac, had 
employed them in the service of the house of Orleans ; 
and though their leader fell in a popular tumult at Paris, 
they retained his name, and continued to distinguish 
themselves as Armagnacs. On the tidings of the ad- 
vance of the French upon Basle, 1600 men were sent 
by the Swiss to strengthen the place. This little banc 
surprised a far superior force of the enemy on the banks 
of the Birs, and their fortunate rashness was crowned 
with success and booty. Spurred by this earnest of 
victory, and regarding neither the commands of their 
officers, nor the immense superiority of the enemy, they 
rushed headlong through the stream of the Birs, but 
were soon stopped by the enemy's heavy artillery and 
cavalry. Five hundred Swiss took their stand on an 
open ait in the stream ; 7 00 behind garden w T alls, near 
St. Jacob, against the constantly renewed attacks of 
the thoroughly disciplined enemy. After ten hours of 
the most murderous conflict, only ten of the Swiss es- 
caped ; the rest were left dead on the field by the side 
of many thousands of their enemies. This was the 
battle of St. Jacob by Basle, which spread the renown 
of Swiss valour through the most remote regions, not- 
withstanding a victory dearly bought by France, and 
vainly boasted of on a medal struck by order of Charles 



124 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1444. 



VII v representing two prisoners bound back to back, 
with the legend Helvetiorum contumacia et temeritas 
ferro frenata mccccxliv. The dauphin afterwards 
showed that he knew better how to estimate the advan- 
tages derivable to his crown from the alliance and the 
arms of the confederates than his father had done. In 
the mean time he saw the folly of all attempts on a 
country, of which the borders were defended with such 
obstinacy. He promised not to march with his army 
through any part of the lands of the confederacy, and 
offered his mediation in order to terminate the war of 
the confederates with Zurich and Austria. 

Our narrative cannot stop to notice many minor 
actions, and must even omit a whole series of diets and 
pacific overtures. In all affairs of any importance, the 
confederates had the advantage; but the districts which 
were the seat of war had been wasted to such a degree 
by their ravages, as to furnish them with no farther 
means of subsistence. They were, besides, heavily bur- 
dened with the garrisons which they had to maintain 
at Baden, Bremgarten, Mellingen, Gruningen, Pfeffikon, 
&c. Both parties, in short, were tired out; and the 
war continued not so much from hope of advantage on 
either side, as because too many obstacles to a compro- 
mise had been raised by the exorbitant pretensions of 
both. However, at length the full and entire conviction 
of necessity enforced on them the postponement of all 
other considerations. The intervention of the electors 
of Mentz, Trier, and more especially of Louis, the 
young elector palatine, resulted in a conference at Con- 
stance, where many neutral personages were present. 
Through Louis's indefatigable activity, and with the aid 
of other active and numerous mediators, the foundations 
of a peace were laid. In the midst of contradictory de- 
mands and allegations, the end in view was limited with 
admirable discretion to the establishment of tranquillity, 
oblivion of the past, and the division of the points in 
dispute. The league of Zurich with Austria was de- 



1460. 



POPULAR IGNORANCE. 



125 



clared null and void, as contrary to the rights of the 
confederacy. 

We find the state of intellectual progress in the first 
half of the fifteenth century scarcely more satisfactory 
than that in which the spiritual polity was left on the 
untimely dissolution of the council of Constance. Those 
cobwebs of the brain which were accredited as sciences, 
as little deserved the name as they did that of wholesome 
nourishment for the mental wants and appetites of the 
people ; while ignorance of the languages of antiquity 
set a seal upon the highest productions of genius, and 
even on the original records of Scripture. What dark- 
ness must have still prevailed when a German monk 
could preach as follows : — " A language has been 
lately invented, called Greek. This Greek is the mother 
of all schisms ; and in it a book hath been written, which 
is called the New Testament, and in which are many 
perilous passages. Another language also hath arisen, 
which is Hebrew. Whosoever learns the same becomes 
a Jew I" Till the foundation of the university of Basle, 
which took place in the year 1 4<60, no effectual care was 
taken for learning in any part of Switzerland. A toler- 
ably instructed man was rarely found at the head of the 
schools, even in considerable towns. A person was 
considered perfectly fit for the office of pastor, who 
could read with facility, translate a little, retain the 
simplest rules of grammar in memory, sing tolerably 
well, and had any degree of natural eloquence. The most 
precious relics of Greek and Roman literature lay in 
numbers in a dark tower of the convent of St. Gall, 
and were rescued from dust and oblivion chiefly by 
foreigners. The poetical art of the Minnesingers had 
vanished; and the science of music had fallen into a state 
of utter decay, till the council of Basle made some at- 
tempts to revive it. Felix Hammerlin, who bore the 
punning surname of Malleolus, a canon of Zurich, an 
upright, learned, and sensible man, a very voluminous 
writer, and possessor of the then enormous number of 
500 volumes, was long the greatest light of the con- 



126 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1450. 



federacy. Even he, however, in those times the most 
learned man in Switzerland, and whose acquirements 
made him pass for a magician with the multitude, 
cherished many superstitious fancies. He held it, for 
example, highly fitting to pronounce certain forms of 
benediction over diseased cattle, or to still a tempest 
raised through satanic art by similar artifices, and, as a 
general rule, in cases of necessity not by any means too 
scrupulously to wave the devil's assistance. He fully 
approved the proceedings of the bishop of Lausanne, 
who caused sentences of Scripture to be read against the 
horse-leeches, which, to the great disgust of that fish- 
eating prelate, killed all the salmon. He also acquiesced 
in the indictment of the glow-worms before the spi- 
ritual court of the bishop of Coire, who, when the 
insect-advocate pleaded that the creatures of God did 
well to seek nourishment for the sustenance of their 
bodies, pronounced upon them solemn sentence of ba- 
nishment into regions uninhabited by man. In like 
manner, the eels in the lake of Geneva were banished 
by one bishop of Lausanne, the earth-worms, grass- 
hoppers, and field-mice, by another. Failure in the 
accomplishment of these and similar sentences was of 
course ascribed entirely to the sins of the nation. 

If the people placed implicit faith in fooleries of this 
kind, they no less firmly believed in signs and wonders, 
preternatural phenomena of every description ; and even 
spiritual dignitaries, in these respects, were no whit more 
enlightened than the lowest of the laity. Many were 
supposed to have a compact with infernal spirits, and 
thousands were led to death at the stake on account of 
this delusion. Happy was the man who, by intensity 
of devotion, and still more by bequests to religious houses 
on his death-bed, could secure a good reception for his 
soul in the next world. But what were looked upon 
as the holiest of all holies were the body of Christ con- 
tained in the host, the bones of martyrs and saints, 
and other relics. Whoever could get any thing of this 
kind in an honest way, was regarded by himself and 



1460. POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 127 

others as a made man, body and soul. But whoever 
came unfairly by such treasures, purloined them, or 
cast scorn upon them, was struck by wrath from heaven, 
and by God's judgments on earth. 

Anna Vogtli of Bischoffzell conceived the evil thought 
of working enchantments with the host, and stole the 
same from the church of Ettiswyl, in the canton of 
Lucerne, on the 24th of May, 1447- She soon, however, 
shrunk from her own device, and cast the host behind a 
hedge privily. Whereupon a white seven-leaved rose 
sprouted instantly forth from the ground, and in its calix 
lay the consecrated wafer. The beasts of the field came 
and bowed before it. The surrounding radiance revealed 
it to the eyes of an innocent shepherdess, who discovered 
it to the people of the village. Whereupon the priests 
came out with toll of bell, with cross and banners, at- 
tended by a multitude of believers, to bring the holy 
thing back to its place. A chapel was built in memory 
of the circumstance, where the host did itself credit by 
working many signs and wonders. We scarcely need to 
add, that Anna Vogtli was burnt. 

Greater was the general consternation at Berne than 
would have been caused by a surprise from the most 
powerful of her enemies, when, in the year 1460, in the 
cathedral church of St. Vincent, the host was missing 
one fine morning ! That no thunderbolt from heaven 
should have fallen on the delinquent seemed a sign of 
the Almighty's displeasure against Berne. Innocents 
were put to the torture to force from them a confession 
of the theft. Fasting and strict discipline were enjoined 
by flaming ordinances ; penitential homilies were fulmin- 
ated from all pulpits. A new and costly receptacle was con- 
secrated to the host, and veneration to the mother of God 
was displayed by renewing her temples. After the lapse 
of years, a priest confessed the theft on his death-bed. 

Eleven o'clock one Sunday night, owing to the neg- 
ligence of the monks of Einsiedlen, three strangers made 
away with certain relics from that monastery. The sacri- 
legious plunderers, seized with horror, let their spoil drop 



128 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1460, 



in the highway at a short distance from Zurich. The 
intelligence reaches Zurich, — the powers spiritual and 
secular, with the whole town at their heels, hasten forth, — 
the treasure is brought reverently and solemnly into the 
great cathedral church, — and a season of extraordinary 
fertility is attributed to this holy acquisition. Poor 
Einsiedlen, shamed and sad, forsaken by her pilgrims, 
could only with great pains and expense recover her lost 
property ; and even such men as Ham merlin regarded 
its restitution with a sigh, as> the most serious loss to 
Zurich. 

The dearth of real devotion amidst all this supersti- 
tion was felt, and sought to be remedied by pomp of 
ceremonial. Zurich was particularly distinguished for 
splendour of church- service, even in the times of distress 
and indigence, which long wars had brought upon the 
town. The pope was viewed as the visible centre of 
God's power upon earth, as the infallible guide of all 
men in their spiritual concernments : but so soon as he 
and his priests stretched forth their fulness of power over 
temporal matters, they had to rue, as we have already 
seen, the instant disappearance of the last trace of reverent 
obedience. 



1456. 



THE YOUTH OP ZURICH. 



129 



CHAP. IX. 

FROM THE FIRST ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE TO THE 
DEATH OF CHARLES THE BOLD OF BURGUNDY. 

1453—1477. 

FIRST ALLIANCE OF SWITZERLAND WITH FRANCE. LOUIS XI. 

CHARLES DUKE OF BURGUNDY. HIS CHARACTER. TAKES 

POSSESSION OF ALSACE. APPOINTS PETER VON IIAGENBACH 

GOVERNOR. CONDUCT OF THE LATTER. COMPLAINED OF BY 

THE SWISS. OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE ALLIANCE OF SWIT- 
ZERLAND WITH FRANCE. — WITH AUSTRIA. FATE OF HAGEN- 

BACH. BERNE DECLARES WAR AGAINST BURGUNDY. 

CHARLES INVADES SWITZERLAND. DESCRIPTION OF HIS 

CAMP. SIEGE OF GRANSON. COLD-BLOODED MURDER OF 

THE GARRISON. BATTLE OF GRANSON. EXULTATION OF 

LOUIS XI. CHARLES RE-APPEARS IN THE FIELD. BATTLE 

OF MORAT. LAST EFFORT OF BURGUNDY. BATTLE OF 

NANCY. DEATH OF CHARLES. ITS CONSEQUENCES. 

The long and severe struggle carried on by the confede- 
rates with Zurich and her powerful allies, if its effects 
had been in some respects mischievous, had yet un- 
questionably heightened the courage and confidence of 
the people, and had rendered their little territory re- 
spectable in the eyes of its more powerful neighbours. 
Meanwhile the newly vindicated spirit of independence 
was often apt to swell into presumption and violence. 
Wherever there was room for martial enterprise, the 
youth of Switzerland asked not what was the cause, but 
where was the seat of warfare ; and even the authorities 
were too disposed towards making conquests to con- 
sult for the preservation of peace with any great so- 
licitude. An anecdote remains of the youth of Zurich, 
which indicates the restless and exuberant flow of en- 
ergies characteristic of the period before us. In the year 
1456 the young burghers of Zurich were invited to a 
feast at Strasburg. They set out from Zurich in the 

K. 



ISO 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1453. 



mornings taking with them a covered pot of millet broth 
with warm loaves, took boat down the Limmat, the Aar, 
and the Rhine, regardless of the dangers of their rapid 
course, and on the same evening brought their broth and 
bread, still warm, to the table of their friends, to show 
with what despatch, in case of emergency, Strasburg 
might expect aid from Zurich. After a few days spent 
in manly exercises the gallant youths returned to their 
native town ; but left the pot behind them, which, as a 
monument of their enterprise, was deposited in the 
armoury of Strasburg. 

The first alliance of Switzerland with France was 
closed under Charles VII., in 1453, and had no other 
end than to secure friendly relations between the two 
countries. This league was renewed in 14:67, by the 
next king, Louis XI., who had already, as dauphin, 
purchased some experience of Swiss valour on the bloody 
day of St. Jacob, and who from that experience strove 
by every means, direct and indirect, to fix his Swiss 
allies on his side, and to turn their powerful arms 
against his formidable enemies, especially against the 
house of Burgundy. He contented himself, at first, 
with the renewal of the simple league of friendship 
formed by his father ; but it was not long before he re- 
sorted to the arts of intrigue and bribery, in order to 
employ the confederates in a more effective manner 
for his own ends. 

In the year 146?, Philip, surnamed the Good, duke 
of Burgundy, died at Bruges, in Flanders. His do- 
minions were inherited by his son Charles, appropriately 
distinguished as the Bold, who mortally detested the 
French monarch, and was hated by him mortally in re- 
turn. In the trial of strength which soon took place 
betwixt them, Louis evinced the ascendancy of prudence 
and intelligence over powerful but unregulated energies. 
He had succeeded to the throne of his father with ex- 
traordinary abilities for ruling, and with no inconsider- 
able experience ; and he sat there as if he only looked 
upon himself in the light of the first officer of the state, 



1467. LOUIS XI. CHARLES THE BOLD. 



131 



whose life should be devoted to the functions of his 
office. The main object which he steadily placed and 
kept before his eyes was the foundation of unlimited 
monarchical power in France, and the humiliation of 
the arrogant and restless feudal nobility, at the head of 
which were the dukes of Burgundy, Normandy, and 
Bretagne. To the attainment of this object Louis pro- 
ceeded without scruple by direct or indirect paths. He 
employed mildness and rigour by turns, divine and 
human authority, flattery and bribery, — constantly 
fraud, — rarely force. Fidelity to his word he only 
practised when it served his purposes. So soon as pro- 
fit appeared on the other side, he never scrupled to 
violate the most positive engagements. He was com- 
monly then most dangerous to his enemies when he 
seemed to be most utterly inactive ; and pursued his ends 
most eagerly precisely at the moment when all the world 
believed he had abandoned them. It was said of him, 
" that he only slept with one eye in war-time, but kept 
both his eyes open, day and night, in time of peace/" 
Such was Louis towards all his enemies foreign and 
internal, and above all, towards his hated rival of Bur- 
gundy. Between the latter power and France neither 
peace nor war could be said to exist, but abundance of 
faithlessness, changeableness, and irritation. Cunning 
at last carried off the victory, bought at the charge of 
others; and Louis attained his ends by perseverance and 
caution, and by the skilful use of many secret instru- 
ments. 

Charles the Bold of Burgundy, the great rival of 
Louis, though nominally his vassal, yet in effect was 
not less powerful than the monarch himself, and was by 
no means disposed to play a subordinate part to him or 
to any other person. The flourishing condition of his 
territories, enriched by industry, commerce, and navi- 
gation ; the accumulated treasures of his ancestors, the 
attachment of his subjects, and the excellence of his 
troops, seemed to secure him superiority over any rival; 
and his position at the head of all the malecontents in 

k 2 



132 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1467* 



France completed his claim to be viewed as the king's 
Most formidable enemy. Charles was of middle stature, 
strong make^ brown complexion, black eyes and hair, 
with an aquiline nose, a broad forehead, and somewhat 
prominent chin. His whole physiognomy indicated a 
stern and martial temper. He had known, from child- 
hood upwards, no pleasures more alluring than the ex- 
citements of the chase or the camp — no worthier scope 
of human undertakings than the glory of a second Alex- 
ander, Insatiable ambition formed the groundwork of 
his whole character. His brain teemed with projects of 
aggrandisement, of the possible realisation of which a 
doubt never occurred to him. Courage, generosity, and 
openness were amongst the brilliant qualities of Charles. 
"WTien he once thought he had tried and proved the cha- 
racter of a friend, he treated him thenceforward with the 
most unlimited confidence; but towards enemies, or 
those who were indifferent to him, he was not always 
scrupulous in keeping his engagements. He took to 
himself the credit of unconquerable firmness : but good 
fortune hardened this quality into arrogance and obsti- 
nacy, so that his heart was closed in the day of disaster 
not less to the counsels of prudence than to the feelings 
of humanity. Such were the very opposite dispositions 
of the two princes, whose enmity was the chief cause 
of the most severe struggle which had ever been main- 
tained by the confederacy. 

Recent feuds had rather provoked than pacified those 
nobles who maintained the part of hereditary enemies 
of Switzerland. Duke Sigismund of Austria, too weak 
in resolution to withstand the constant promptings and 
persuasions of his council, and too weak in resources to 
undertake any thing against the Swiss confederacy single- 
handed, was easily prevailed upon to look out for foreign 
aid. He first endeavoured to gain allies in Germany, 
and failed : next he turned his views towards France, 
which had so lately sent the Armagnacs to vex the Swiss 
borders ; but the cautious Louis had not so soon for- 
gotten the day of St. Jacob; and saw, besides, too well 



1473. CHARLES ACCEPTS ALSACE. 133 

I 

how useful Switzerland might be to him, to wish for its 
destruction, had he possessed the power to effect it. For 
these reasons he granted, indeed, a subsidy in money ; 
but declined the duke's proposal that he should take into 
his hands, by way of mortgage, the Austrian territories 
bordering on Switzerland, under condition of protecting 
them against the Swiss confederacy. Sigismund ad- 
dressed himself next, as some affirm, by advice of Louis, 
to Burgundy. Such advice appears extremely charac- 
teristic of the far-sighted, acute, and subtle policy of 
that prince. Knowing the duke's temper, as well as that 
of the confederates, and well aware that the former would 
embrace, without hesitation, so good an opportunity of 
extending his dominions, he could easily foresee that 
when such irritable characters as Charles and the Swiss 
became neighbours, the outbreak of a war of extermin- 
ation could not be far off. Then he would have a glo- 
rious opportunity of gratifying his hatred to the duke, 
without any risk or exertion on his own part, at most 
by some expense in money, and perfidy, which cost him 
nothing. If the inevitable conflict turned to the ruin of 
the duke, then Louis had provided for his personal ven- 
geance, and might safely trust to his cunning to secure 
him the lion's share of the booty. On the other hand, 
even if the duke should be victorious, Louis's own 
experience furnished sufficient grounds of certainty, 
that before the Swiss gave themselve"4up for beaten, they 
would exhaust the strength of Charles so completely, that 
he must fall into the king's hands in a manner disarmed 
and defenceless. Either event could not but be advan- 
tageous to Louis : the last, perhaps, he deemed the more 
desirable of the two, as it might possibly place the Swiss 
as well as Burgundy at his mercy. 

With Charles of Burgundy, Sigismund's advisers had 
no trouble in inducing him to accept a mortgage of the 
counties of Pfirt, Sundgau, Brisgau, Alsace, and the four 
forest towns, in return for a considerable sum of money. 
How, indeed, could that ambitious prince, whose favour- 
ite scheme was the junction of his unconnected domains, 

k 8 



134* HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1473. 

and, if possible-, the erection of a kingdom extending 
from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, — how could 
such a prince reject so rich an acquisition, which placed 
in his hands a key to Germany, Switzerland, and Upper 
Burgundy, and lay contiguous to the latter, which was 
already his own property ? The voluntary cession of 
lands so valuable to him he regarded as a signal piece 
of good fortune : the reservation of a future resumption 
appeared to him merely nominal, as Sigismund's expen- 
sive habits seemed to afford no prospect of it ; and the 
proviso for the maintenance of the ancient constitution 
was regarded as an empty form requiring no ob- 
servance. Thus had the Austrian nobles gained their 
end, of giving a powerful and dangerous neighbour to 
the confederacy : what did not, however, come within 
the range of their calculations, was, that thereby they 
had exposed the lands of the empire to great dangers, 
and prepared (in the words of Bullinger) <( a rod for 
their own backs." 

The government of the newly acquired lands was 
delegated to the knight Peter von Hagenbach, a tried 
and proved servant of Charles, who had raised himself 
by his merits at the duke's court from the humblest 
station : this man, who, like other upstarts, thought to 
efface the discredit of his birth by domineering assump- 
tion acted rather as a tyrant than a governor. As he 
leaned for support entirely on his patron, and treated all 
the world besides with total disregard, he scrupled not 
to deprive the nobles and commons of their franchises, 
and transgressed his deputed powers* with so little de- 
cency or mercy, that he acquired the appellation of the 
" scourge of God." His first employment, notwithstand- 
ing the express terms of the mortgage, was to regulate 
every thing according to the laws and customs of Bur- 
gundy. No representations or remonstrances were at- 
tended to; nothing remained but silence and submission; 
for Charles had known how to crush the independent 
spirit of far more strong and powerful populations. The 
confederates regarded these transactions, which were 



1473. PETER VON HAGENBACH. 135 

ominous of no good to themselves, with a mind prepared 
for all events, but not without anxiety. Relations out- 
wardly amicable prevailed between them and Burgundy, 
till Hagenbach went so far as to plant the colours of the 
latter power on the Bernese territory of Schenkenberg : 
this occurrence Louis instantly turned to his own advan- 
tage. The confederates had empowered Berne, whose 
government was better versed in diplomacy, and ac- 
quainted with the French language, than those of the 
other cantons were in general, to close a treaty with 
France in the name of the whole league, in any case of 
necessity or expedience : this was accordingly done. The 
king and the confederacy reciprocally engaged to give 
no aid to the duke of Burgundy : this arrangement de- 
prived the duke of all hope of Swiss assistance in exe- 
cuting his projects against France. Charles, who did 
not wish to bring the confederates still closer to the king 
than they were already, commanded his vogt to desist 
fiom farther encroachments. The enmity between Charles 
aad Louis increased ; and, but for Berne's prudent and 
resolute conduct, the confederates might already have 
been plunged in a war. Many had been won by French 
gold, others were inclined to the cause of Burgundy, and 
the state of affairs became more and more complex. The 
barons of Heudorf, Eptingen, and other noble foes of 
the Swiss, saw with dissatisfaction that the mortgaged 
lands had now been for three years in the duke's pos- 
session, without the expected war with the confederates 
having commenced : they therefore endeavoured, under 
the shield of Burgundy, to embitter the Swiss by flagrant 
violations of the last treaty of peace, and the law of 
nations. Thus the Swiss had now incentives to war on 
two sides ; a third was soon added : for the mortgaged 
lands, which had formerly been ruled with mildness and 
equity, now, oppressed as they were by a reckless tyrant, 
looked for relief towards the Swiss league. Hagenbach had 
made himself, in a short time, as detested as the Gesslers 
and the Landenbergs had formerly been in Switzerland. 
The imposts which he exacted, the regulations which he 

k 4 



136 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1473. 



introduced, were utterly unendurable to the people : his 
merciless rigour, joined with haughty arrogance ; his 
boundless immoralities, extortions, and judicial murders,, 
filled up the measure of popular hatred ; which, more- 
over, laid to his charge all that was done by him in 
performance of the will of his master. Charles, who 
felt no enmity against the confederates, assured them 
of his undiminished favour ; and procured, by inter- 
vention of Sigismund, a settlement of the feud with 
Heudorf and others. But Louis's intrigues, and Hagen- 
bach's recklessness, diminished the advantageous impres- 
sion made by the duke's efforts ; and, not long afterwards, 
Charles offended personally a highly respectable body 
of Swiss delegates, who came to complain of the conduct 
of his vogt. 

Hagenbach, who could not conceal his hatred of the 
confederates, seized every opportunity of outrage against 
the whole people, or its individual leaders. He increased 
the tolls, invaded the rights of Swiss owners of land 
whose property lay in the new Burgundian territory, and 
supported with his influence every enemy of Switzerland. 
Swiss traders were robbed by the nobles with his know- 
ledge and connivance, and made prisoners for the sake 
of extorting ransom. Hagenbach himself tried every 
method of reducing Muhlhausen under the power of 
Burgundy ; and when the harassed town pleaded her 
existing league with the Swiss, the vogt scoffingly pro- 
mised to convert it from a cow-house to a garden of 
roses. 

About this time the sorely oppressed districts ad- 
dressed the most urgent petitions for release to duke 
Sigismund. That good but feeble prince sincerely de- 
plored that he had put his land in more powerful keeping 
than his own, from which it would not be easy to recover 
it. The lower union, a league of the most considerable 
towns of Alsace, had promised to advance the sum re- 
quired to redeem the mortgaged estates. But the assistance 
of the warlike confederates was likely to be requisite in 
effecting the redemption ; as it was easy to foresee that 



1474. 



CHARLES OFFENDS THE SWISS. 



137 



Charles would accept no pecuniary equivalent for domains 
which he now viewed as his own absolute property. Sigis- 
mund, therefore, made overtures of alliance to the Swiss. 

Shortly after these transactions Charles entered Alsace 
with 5000 horse, and a numerous courtly attendance. 
Panic preceded him every where. Many left the country 
with their property. The peasantry sought refuge in 
the towns; the towns solicited aid of the confederacy. 
Several fortified places closed their gates. Basle made 
a defensive alliance with Switzerland, in case of any 
sudden surprise, and received an addition of 800 Swiss 
to its garrison, with the promise that in case it were 
besieged the w T hole force of the confederacy should 
march to its relief. In the mean time the confederates 
conducted themselves as if they had no cause for appre- 
hension. They sent a deputation to the duke to pay 
their respects, and to lay their complaints before him 
against Hagenbach. At a more auspicious moment 
Charles might probably have averted the impending 
storm from his head, by affording satisfaction for the 
grievances complained of; but now, surrounded as he was 
by the worst foes of Switzerland, he show T ed offensive 
pride and haughty coldness. The humiliating ceremony 
of falling on one knee before the duke was enforced on 
the reluctant republicans ; and after they had followed 
in his train for some time, they were uncourteously dis- 
missed from Dijon, without reply to their application. 

From this time forward the confederates attached 
themselves decidedly to Charles's enemies, while Hagen- 
bach, to the duke's own disadvantage, received encou- 
ragement in his mischievous proceedings. On the 10th 
of January, 1474, Berne closed, in the name of all the 
confederates, an offensive and defensive league with Louis 
of France, which could point at nothing else but war 
with Burgundy. In this alliance the eyes of the con- 
federates were blinded to their true interests by a large 
immediate profit. True policy w T ould certainly not have 
led them to annihilate a power which alone balanced that 
of France. But their measures were much more the 



238 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1474. 



result of momentary impressions than of any systematic 
plan or principle. From this epoch first began the de- 
moralising influence of French manners and money, 
through enlistments and pensions. The intelligence of 
this alliance took the duke by surprise, and he left no 
means untried to win the Swiss back to his interests. 
An embassy was sent to the confederates to soften the 
impression made by Charles's haughty deportment. 
Their efforts seemed to meet with success. But the em- 
peror and the French king, convinced that a check must 
be given to Burgundy for the sake of their own safety, 
and that the confederates were the instruments best adapt- 
ed for that purpose, plied them with such active intrigues, 
that hostile steps were soon taken. The alliance which, 
we have already seen, Austria courted with Switzerland 
finally took place. It was long before the Swiss could be 
convinced of the sincerity of the Austrian intentions. 
The hereditary hostility of that house to Swiss free- 
dom was still retained in too lively remembrance ; but 
Joseph von Sillinen, provost of Beronmunster, succeed- 
ed at length in satisfying his countrymen of the honour- 
able purposes of Austria. One hundred and fifty-nine 
years after the battle of Morgarten, eighty-eight years 
after the defeat of duke Sigismund' s grandfather at 
Sempach, that prince and the whole body of confederates, 
contracted, under the guarantee of France, the eternal 
covenant, a treaty transmitted almost uninterruptedly 
to our own times. All wars and disputes were to be 
ended by it. Austria abandoned all claim to restitution 
of her losses in Switzerland, whether early or recent. 
Freedom of trade and intercourse was restored. Neither 
party should favour or support the foes of the other ; 
but stood pledged to afford each other reciprocal aid. 
Hardly had this treaty been concluded, when Sigismund 
hastened to demand the release of his land from the 
duke of Burgundy. The towns of the lower union ad- 
vanced the sum, which in a few days lay in readiness at 
Basle. Sigismund, whose first intention had been to 
humble the Swiss by aid of the Burgundians, was now 



1474. TRIAL AXD D003I OF HAGENBACH. 13Q 

well pleased to find the former disposed to take his 
part against Burgundy. He made a visit to Switzer- 
land in person, and won the hearts of the people so 
completely, that all remembrance of ancient enmity 
vanished, and the Swiss vied with each other in cordial 
welcome of their new ally. 

When Hagenbach was informed of these transactions, 
he resolved to take all possible means to secure the duke 
his master in possession of the mortgaged lands, as he 
knew that Charles affirmed himself to have purchased 
them, and had no idea of making restitution. In this view, 
Hagenbach aimed at securing the fortified town of Brei- 
sach, entered the place on Good Friday, at the head of 
some hundred Lombards, disturbed divine service, com- 
mitted various acts of violence, and drove matters so far 
with an already disaffected people, that a tumult arose, 
in which his Lombards were driven out of the town, he 
himself taken prisoner in the name of duke Sigismund, 
and his life rescued with difficulty from the fury of the 
people. Hagenbach was thrown into a dungeon, and 
Sigismund sent a new vogt to replace him in his terri- 
tories thus regained without stroke of sword. Charles 
threatened loudly, and marched one division of his army 
to the frontiers. Hagenbach, in the mean time, lavished 
promises in vain to procure his liberation. He still en- 
tertained hopes from his master ; but Charles was not 
magnanimous enough to interfere in the behalf of an old 
servant, whose death would give so welcome a pretext 
for revenge. Four weeks after Hagenbach' s imprison- 
ment he was brought to trial. The archducal coun- 
cillors, the delegates of the mortgaged lands and the 
towns of the Lower Union assembled, surrounded by 
innumerable multitudes, brought together by curiosity or 
malice. The prisoner had often been awaked from 
uneasy slumber by the clatter caused by new arrivals of 
delegates, as they rode through the city gates, under the 
cell where he lay in confinement. His terror may be 
imagined when the keeper announced the arrival of a 
troop of tall and strong, though grey-headed, strangers^ 



140 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1474. 



coarsely clad, and indifferently mounted. " Those must 
be the Swiss !" he exclaimed : u God help me; for they 
have much to bring against me ! " His gloomy antici- 
pations did not deceive him. He was doomed to death : 
and no less than eight candidates disputed the honour of 
executing the sentence. 

Hagenbach's execution was the signal for war ; and 
Charles swore he would lose his life rather than his 
revenge. His revenge he was, however, compelled for 
the moment to postpone, being entangled in a war of 
some importance in another quarter. This interval was 
employed by the confederates in providing for their 
security on all sides. Friendly relations were esta- 
blished with Milan and Savoy. Duke Rene of Lorraine, 
whose territories excited the cupidity of Charles, as they 
very inconveniently severed his southern from his north- 
ern possessions, was taken into the union against Bur- 
gundy. Hostilities were commenced in the Sundgau, 
in the autumn of the same year, by a division of troops 
under the command of Hagenbach's brother. Berne 
appointed a diet of all the confederates at Lucerne, and 
was invested with discretionary powers to take measures 
for the general good. Vain were the representations of 
those who saw clearly, and said loudly, that the con- 
federates were placing themselves as tools in the hands 
of the French king, and that, so soon as they had done 
his work, he would rob them of the profits. On the 
2d of October, 1474, an alliance with France was con- 
cluded at Berne in the name of all the confederates. 
The Swiss engaged to supply the king with 6000 fight- 
ing men whenever he might need their assistance : on 
his part he should only be summoned to aid in case of 
necessity ; and in all wars with Burgundy might con- 
tribute his contingent in the shape of a pecuniary subsidy. 
Thus the crafty Louis called the Swiss confederacy to 
arms for the promotion of his own ends against Bur- 
gundy, while he turned away the ravages of war from 
his own territories. On the 9th of October, an embassy 
from the emperor summoned the confederates to attack 



1474. BERNE DECLARES WAR WITH BURGUNDY. 141 

the duke of Burgundy, with the promise, that while 
they advanced on the south-east of his territories, the 
emperor would assail them on the side of the Nether- 
lands. The confederates hastened to Lucerne to com- 
plete their deliberations; but before these had been closed, 
Berne, on the strength of the full powers which were de- 
volved on her, declared war with Burgundy. Many, 
indeed, did not consider these powers as warranting, in 
their true sense, a measure so decisive ; but regarded 
them as merely having been given for the conclusion of 
the necessary treaties with France. But the murmurs 
of those unseduced by French pensions and promises 
were shortly to be drowned in the shouts of victory. 

The foregoing declaration against Burgundy brought 
out the confederates more boldly than ever on the theatre 
of events beyond the circle of their compact. In the 
preceding age they had struggled against Austria in 
defence of their national existence ; in the war of the 
Aargau they merely obeyed the summons of the empire; 
they engaged in the war with Zurich first from passion, 
then for their own protection. But now Berne had 
drawn the other confederates, with the prospect of 
but limited assistance from abroad, into mortal strife 
with the mightiest of their neighbours, whose dominions 
stretched from the coasts of the North Sea over the 
greater part of the rich and populous Netherlands, over 
the duchy and free county of Burgundy, and many other 
lordships besides. 

The army of the confederates, amounting in all to a 
force of about 18,000 men, appeared before Hericourt, 
a strong-hold of Diebold of Neufchatel in the Franehe 
Comte. It was in vain that a strong body of Burgun- 
dians, under the command of Jacob de Romont, count de 
Vaud, made an effort to effect a diversion. On the 13th 
of November he was routed by the avoyer of Schar- 
nachthal and Felix Keller of Zurich. Hericourt was 
surrendered, and taken into possession in the name of 
duke Sigismund of Austria. The army returned home- 
wards; and the discontent which had arisen among 



142 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1475. 



many of the confederates on account of the precipitate 
declaration of war on the part of Berne was put an end 
to by the victory, and still more by the plunder. The 
confederates, however, renewed at Lucerne the regula- 
tions of their old martial law, on account of the disorders 
which had taken place through the stimulus of wine and 
love of plunder ; considering, moreover, that disturbers 
of discipline are less deserving of mercy than open ene- 
mies. It was resolved that a division of the rear-guard 
should receive orders to cut down all who engaged in 
plunder before the battle was over ; and that then what- 
ever booty was made should be fairly shared in common. 
Louis XI. lavished flatteries ; begged aid of the lords 
confederates, in case the duke should attack him, and 
promised to participate with them all the hazards of 
warfare. If his subsidies to the cantons suffered occa- 
sional delays, his pensions to their leading men at least 
were paid punctually. On the 6th of April, 14? 5, the 
account of the disbursements to those magistrates and 
officers, who had in effect sold themselves to France, was 
regularly settled between Louis's commissioner and the 
Bernese avoyer Diessbach.* 

Republican venality was soon repaid by royal faith- 
lessness. The first of their august allies who forsook 
the Swiss was the emperor Frederick, who, equally re- 
gardless of them as of Rene and duke Sigismund, con- 
cluded a dishonourable peace with the duke of Burgundy 
in order to win the daughter of the latter for his son. 
Actuated by similar delusive expectations, Louis closed 
a nine years' truce with Charles, in which he sacrificed, 
without scruple, the interests of Switzerland, as well as 
of the lower union of Burgundy. In the perilous po- 
sition of the confederates, the margrave Rudolph en- 
deavoured to mediate a truce for them with Burgundy. 
His conciliatory labours did not prosper, as the former 
would not abandon those allies which were still true to 
them. Charles had now achieved the complete conquest 
of Lorraine ; and from thence marched through Be- 

* Mailer, iv. 725, &c. 



1476. 



CAMP OF CHARLES. 



sancon in mid-winter, in order to chastise the con- 
federates, above all, the Bernese, for their audacity. 
Flames and other incendiary devices on his banners 
gave a sufficiently graphic announcement of his intentions. 
At Besancon he was joined by his corps of artillery, and 
by reinforcements from Italy and Burgundy, which 
brought his force up to about 60,000 men. This army, 
though numerically imposing, consisted in a great mea- 
sure of raw and hastily levied troops, and advanced as 
if the object of its meeting were the joyous celebration 
of some festival, instead of mortal strife with the de- 
scendants of the victors of Morgarten, Sernpach, and 
Laupen. Charles drew in his train the greater part of 
his court, the whole splendid cortege of his attendants, 
all his treasures and valuables, a crowd of cooks and 
tradespeople of all descriptions, with whole stores of 
their several commodities, and a multitude of light and 
loose companions ; so that his camp, including all its 
useless followers, might contain perhaps 100,000 per- 
sons.* This motley host inundated the land like 
a mountain torrent. Charles formed an encampment, 
which, in display of wealth and magnificence, resembled 
a luxurious capital city more than a place of arms. It 
was regularly laid out in wide streets. The richest and 
the most diversified articles of convenience and of orna- 
ment were displayed in tents and booths. But for the 
sullen roar of artillery, the scene would have appeared 
a fair rather than a camp. An artificial mount was 
raised in the midst, on which stood the magnificent 
tent of the duke himself. From the oriental pomp 
of this pavilion Charles might gaze with gratified pride 
upon the glittering lines beneath him, little imagining 
that he looked on all his glories for the last time. 

On the 19th of February Charles laid siege to Gran- 

* "A grand chevauchee," says Philip de Comines, "venoit le due 
Charles, avec moult gens d'armes, de pied et de cheval, repandant la terreur 
au loin par son ost innombrable. La etoient cinquante mille, voire plus, 
de toutes langues et contrees, force canons et autres engins de nouvelle 
facture ; pavilions et accoutrements tout reluisants d'or, et grande bande de 
valets, marchands, et filies de joyeux amour." 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1476. 



son, a little town on the lake of Neufchatel. He attacked 
the place in his usual manner, by storm — by w T hich all 
that he gained was the possession of an untenable town, 
while the garrison withdrew into the well-fortified castle, 
on w T hich the duke's artillery kept up an incessant fire. 
Unhappily the powder magazine in the castle exploded ; 
the master gunner was killed, and a dearth of provisions 
began to be felt in the garrison. Nevertheless their 
courage did not abandon them, and no thought w*as en- 
tertained of surrender, till a Burgundian made his 
appearance in the castle, by name Ronchant, wdio had 
already at a former period wandered about Switzerland, 
and acquainted himself with the character of the people. 
This knowledge he employed with sinister skill in prac- 
tising on the garrison with fabricated intelligence. He 
assured them that Freyburg was already in ashes, Berne 
had surrendered at discretion, and the troops of the 
confederates were disbanded. He spoke alternately of 
the dreadful wrath of the duke, and of his gracious dis- 
positions towards the garrison, and was seconded so w^ell 
by a strong party in the castle, that the bolder spirits 
w r ere forced to yield to the cry for capitulation. Ac- 
cordingly the castle was evacuated, and its recent de- 
fenders brought into the camp before Charles, who 
contemptuously asked, on their appearance, (C Who are 
those people ? 99 and affected to know nothing either of 
Ronchant or his promises. Persuaded by his council- 
lors that a signal example was necessary, the terror of 
which would throw all other fortified places open to him, 
misled, moreover, by pride of power, the quality most 
opposite to any thing like true greatness of soul, Charles 
gave up the garrison of Granson to execution. Most of 
them were stripped naked and hanged on trees the same 
day ; the remainder drowned in the lake on the follow- 
ing morning. The silent intrepidity with which they 
met their death extorted respect, mingled with awe, 
from the enemy ; and the fortune and honour of Bur- 
gundy sunk from the hour when that atrocious crime 
received its consummation. 



1476. 



BATTLE OF GRANSON. 



145 



On the very day when these proceedings took place, 
the main hody of the Swiss army, 20,000 strong, was 
drawn together near Neufchatel. The news of the mas- 
sacre filled them with deep rage and thirst for venge- 
ance, while the duke gave himself up to idle dreams of 
renown and conquest. When informed of the approach 
of the confederates, he made his preparations for imme- 
diate action. His army was entrenched behind Granson, in 
an admirable position, well fortified by art and by nature, 
with the lake on the right, the chain of the Jura on the 
ieft, in front the Arnou, the banks and approaches of 
which were covered by a formidable artillery. It was 
evident that the Swiss, whose whole force hardly 
amounted to a third of that of the duke, could not 
attack him in this secure position with any chance of 
success. They therefore resolved to draw him out by 
stratagem, and directed an attack upon the castle of 
Vaumarcus, which lay between Neufchatel and Granson, 
and in which, by the account of several writers, some of 
Charles's favoured counsellors and courtiers had tem- 
porarily taken up their residence. The confederates 
hoped that Charles's pride would render it impossible 
for him to remain a quiet spectator of the action. They 
had calculated rightly, for Charles, sooner than they an- 
ticipated, and before they had made their assault upon 
Vaumarcus, quitted, against the advice of his best 
counsellors, a highly advantageous position ; and, in 
order to protect a fortress utterly insignificant, marched 
to meet the Swiss upon ground where he could neither 
deploy his forces, nor make any important use of his 
artillery and cavalry. 

On the 3d of March, the vanguard of the Swiss, 
the men of Schwytz and Thun, accompanied by nu- 
merous volunteers, advanced from Neufchatel. It was 
early in a dull and misty morning. Having ascended 
the heights in the neighbourhood of the castle, they saw 
to their astonishment, when the vapours cleared from 
the low grounds, the whole force of the enemy drawn 
out into the valley before them. The Burgundians ad- 

L 



146 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1476. 



vaneed. The Swiss sent back to hasten the march of 
their slowly advancing main body,, and then fell on 
their knees to pray, according to the custom of their 
fathers. The enemy, unacquainted with this pious 
usage^ and imagining that the whole confederate army 
was before them, and had fallen on their knees to im- 
plore mercy, raised a simultaneous shout of derision. A 
troop of cuirassiers dashed forwards to trample down 
the supplicants,, but was indifferently received by the 
long spears of the confederates, and effectually repulsed 
by their advance in close order. After a discharge from 
the Burgundian artillery,, which was pointed too high to 
take much effect, Charles endeavoured with his best 
troops to break the line of the Swiss in front, while 
count Louis of Chateau Guyon, a personal foe of the 
confederates, charged them in flank, at the head of 
6000 horse. Now was the hottest rage of battle. The 
Swiss were hard pressed. Twice had Chateau Guyon 
seized with his own hand the banner of Schwytz ; when 
he was struck down. His troops wavered, dismayed by 
the fall of their leader. At this moment, a new and 
fearful sound arose from the heights in the rear of the 
confederates, and drew thither the eyes of the Burgun- 
dians. A fresh array of combatants covered the ridge. 
The horn of Uri blew the note of death, which was 
caught up and re-echoed by that of Unterwalden. And 
when the whole body of Swiss, after discharging their 
pieces with deadly precision, came down, man upon 
man, while new bands issued continually from the hollow 
ways and the thickets, that inexplicable sort of panic 
came on the Burgundians, which occasionally seizes the 
most resolute. They gave the battle up for lost. A 
feint of their own cavalry, who attempted by a retrograde 
movement, to draw the Swiss into a disadvantageous 
position, was taken by the infantry as a signal for 
flight. Vainly did Charles, at the head of his horsemen, 
throw himself across the swarm of fugitives. The 
whole host fell asunder; and instead of retreating to the 
fortified camp, where they might have rallied, took to 



1476. 



EXULTATION OF LOUIS. 



147 



flight, some towards Granson, some into the woods and 
fields, some over the Arnou or the mountains, and others 
again in boats across the lake. The unfortunate prince, 
with only five companions, directed his flight through 
the nearest pass of the Jura.* 

When .the spoil of the duke's camp came to he shared 
among tile cantons, it was found to contain 120 pieces 
of ordnance, 600 standards, and about 10,000 pack- 
horses. These and an infinite quantity of other muni- 
tions of war, the whole of the ducal ornaments and 
valuables of every description, his golden seal, a pound 
in weight, his decorated prayer-book, the treasures of 
his generals and courtiers, remained in the possession of 
the victors. The rich hangings and pavilions were for 
the most part cut to pieces. Gold was shared by hat- 
fuls; diamonds, which now adorn the most magnificent 
crowns in 1 Europe, were first ignorantly thrown aside, 
then sold for trifling sums. In the division of this 
booty the least part came to the common stock. Many 
subsequent diets were engaged on the subject; and one 
of the great diamonds was sold in 1492, on the public 
account, for 5000 guilders. In imitation of foreign 
usages, the most distinguished leaders were created 
knights on the field of battle by the avoyer, Nicholas 
of Scharnachthal, as the oldest knight present. The 
town and castle of Granson were speedily retaken, and 
the exasperated youths of Berne and Freyburg hung 
part of the garrison up by the same ropes from which 
they had taken down their slaughtered brethren. They 
remained three days on the field of battle, and Granson 
was left occupied by a Swiss garrison. 

Perhaps even greater pleasure was given by Charles's 
defeat to his evil angel Louis XI. than that which was 
experienced by the victors themselves. Indeed the battle 
was fought as much in his cause as in theirs, without 
having cost him any thing more than money and dupli- 

* " Abien dire la verity," says Comities, "je croy que jamais depuis il 
n'eut 1'entendement si bon qu'il avoit eu auparavant cette bataille." 
Liv. v. ch. 3. 

L 2 



148 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1467. 



city. On the first breaking out of war he had hastened 
to Lyons, in order to he nearer the scene of action. From 
thence he sent spies in various disguises into Switzerland, 
and waited with impatience for decisive intelligence. The 
Swiss, justly indignant at his treacherous conduct, had 
alarmed him with the idea that they meant jto close a 
treaty of peace, if not actually of alliance, with his rival. 
At length, however, arrived the tidings of Granson, on 
the reception of which, the only alloy to Louis's satis- 
faction was, that more Burgundians had not been left 
dead upon the field. However, he contrived to conceal 
his pleasure, and did not omit to send the duke a mes- 
sage of condolence. The richest of his presents, and the 
strongest of his assurances, were lavished on the Swiss, 
to engage them in the farther prosecution of the contest; 
for the day of Granson had neither sufficed to still his 
apprehensions, nor to satisfy his thirst for revenge. 

Charles, in the mean while, rallied all his resources : 
every sixth man was enlisted, every sixth penny was 
exacted; only a single iron vessel was left to any cook; 
the bells were taken down from the church-towers to be 
cast into cannon, and new artillery was brought from 
Lorraine. Fresh troops were levied in Savoy and Italy ; 
and thirteen days after the rout of Granson, Charles 
re-appeared in the Valais, and remained for seven weeks 
at Lausanne, where he found himself again at the head 
of an army still superior in numerical force to his former 
one. The confederates, on the other hand, showed no 
eagerness to comply with Berne's summons to the field. 
They discovered, or fancied, projects of aggrandisement on 
her part ; expressed dissatisfaction with the division of 
the plunder ; and did not hold themselves bound to cross 
the limits of the confederacy. A conference of their 
delegates took place at Lucerne, where new regulations 
were adopted with regard to plunder, &c. Finally, a 
thousand men, with a newly arrived body of German 
cavalry, were despatched to Freyburg, who, supported 
by the citizens, engaged several divisions of the Bur- 
gundian army with vigour and success. 



1476. 



BATTLE OF MORAT. 



149 



Berne detached 1500 men to garrison Morat on the 
lake of that name,, under command of the ex-avoyer 
Adrian of Bubenberg, a man such as extraordinary 
emergencies demand, although they do not always supply. 
He had strenuously opposed the war with Burgundy 
at the outset^ and therefore had been thrown into the 
background by the dominant party; but a man of his 
character never dreams of avenging on his country the 
wrongs which he may have received in his own person 
from his countrymen. He exacted of the garrison under 
his orders an oath to inflict immediate death on any one 
feho should speak of surrender, himself the first, in case 
he should be guilty of such a proposal. On the 9th of 
June the Burgundian troops appeared before Morat. 
Attempts to take the place by storm were repelled with 
signal loss to the enemy, and the breaches made on the 
walls were all repaired during the night. Wherever 
danger appeared, Adrian showed himself. He sent to 
Berne to dissuade his fellow-citizens from exposing 
themselves by precipitately attempting to relieve him, 
until they should be reinforced by the rest of the con- 
federates : in the mean time, he should know how to 
maintain his post without assistance. 

Berne renewed, with earnestness, her summons to the 
confederates, some of whom had regarded Morat merely 
in the light of a point of aggrandisement for Berne, not 
as an important advanced post of the confederacy. But 
at length they took a larger view of the circumstances, 
and hastened to assist the besieged. Louis XI. remained 
inactive, having betaken himself to Lyons, on pretence 
of a pious pilgrimage, in order to observe the march of 
events, and be prepared to act according as his interest 
should dictate. He pretended friendship alternately to 
both sides. All the force which Berne could muster, 
with the aid of her out-burghers, reinforced from the 
other cantons, from Basle, the lower union of Burgundy, 
and a strong body of Austrian cavalry, drew up on the 
high grounds stretching on the south-west of Morat ; and 
the young count Rene hastened through an enemy's 

l 3 



150 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



country to join them. A Swiss council of war in those 
times was not wont to deliberate whether or no an attack 
should be made, but what was the most effectual mode 
of making it. Hans of Hallwyl led the van and the 
right wing ; Waldmann, jointly with Wilhelm Herter 
of Strasburg, the main body ; Hertenstein of Lucerne 
commanded the rear. For the first time the confederates 
formed in widely extended lines. They overlooked the 
whole Burgundian army, entrenched behind quickset 
hedges in close order of battle, with formidable batteries 
in their front. When the Austrian cavalry officers ad- 
vised the confederates to ensconce themselves behind a 
fence of baggage- waggons, and await, in this position, 
the attack of the enemy, Felix Keller of Zurich made 
reply, that the confederates were wont to be beforehand 
with their enemies. (C God with us against the world!" 
cried Hallwyl to his followers. At this instant the sun 
broke through the heavy clouds which had veiled it. 
" Heaven lights us to victory ! " he exclaimed, waving 
his sword. cc Forward ! think of your wives and chil- 
dren : youths, think of your loved ones; yield them not 
up to the lewd and godless enemy ! " 

They rushed without hesitation on the terrible artil- 
lery, which galled the cavalry more than the foot-soldiers. 
The garrison of Morat made a sally simultaneously with 
the general charge of their countrymen. The body guard 
of the duke and a free company of English maintained 
their ground gallantly for some time, but were driven in 
at length, and all was lost. The flying troops of Bur- 
gundy were pursued as far as Wiflisburg, with the 
shouts, ce Remember Brie ! Remember Granson ! " Fif- 
teen thousand corpses strewed the wide extent of the field 
of battle ; thousands sunk in the neighbouring lake and 
morasses.* The plunder, in arms, valuables, and forage, 

* The ossuary at Morat, which received the bones of the slain Burgun- 
dians, exhibited the following inscription, till its destruction by the French 
in 1798 : — 

Deo Opt. Max. 
Caroli inclyti et fortissimi Ducis Burgundise, 
Exercitus, Muratum obsidens, 
Hoc sui monumentum reliquit. 

M.CCCC.LXXVII. 



1477. 



BATTLE OF NANCY. 



151 



though it could not be compared to that of Granson, was 
considerable ; but in this,, as in former instances, the 
rules of division were not adhered to. Charles fled, 
without once halting, to Morges. Notwithstanding the 
desire of Berne to follow up the victory, the confederates, 
for the most part, hastened homewards from the field 
of battle. 

The emperor, the pope, and the king of Hungary, 
offered their mediation for a peace ; but Charles could 
not be brought to renounce his pretensions to Lorraine., 
Too late he made approaches to his people in his mis- 
fortunes, and sought to inspire them with ardour for his 
cause. The Burgundians and Netherlanders received his 
advances coldly ; and while he yielded up his mind to 
gloomy discouragement, Rene had again made himself 
master of his capital, and a considerable portion of his 
territory. Charles now collected all the force at his com., 
mand, and prepared to besiege Nancy, while count Rene 
went to solicit aid of his friends the confederates. He 
presented himself in tears before the council of Berne a 
who, mindful of the reproaches they had incurred on a 
former occasion, would now conclude nothing without 
taking the sense of the other cantons^ A diet was con^ 
voked at Lucerne, before which Rene renewed his press- 
ing entreaties. It now occurred to every one, that a 
struggle with their enemy in Lorraine, and in the pay 
of count Rene, was preferable to gratuitous blows im- 
pending on their own frontiers. Count Rene was enabled 
to return to his own territories at the head of 8000 
Swiss, of numerous reinforcements from Germany, and 
of such of his own subjects as adhered to his cause. In 
point of numbers Charles's force was inferior to that of 
Rene : he was surrounded, indeed, by his bravest and 
his most devoted warriors ; but discouragement pervaded 
the mass of his followers. His faithful adherents ear- 
nestly implored him to retreat, to collect his strength, 
and harass his antagonists with delays ; but a Neapolitan 
favourite of Charles, Campo-Basso, who had already 
long betrayed the trust reposed in him, unhappily still 

It 4i 



152 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1477. 



retained his entire confidence ; and, under this man's 
guidance, Charles blindly rushed on destruction. On 
the onset of the enemy, this wretch would have gone 
over to them, but was repulsed by the confederates with 
horror; Charles was left exposed in flank, and surrounded 
by the enemy ; his bravest fell ; his disheartened troops 
were soon scattered ; and the duke himself, resolved to 
stake all upon a last throw r , received a random death- 
stroke in the melee. 

So soon as Louis was certified of his hated rival's 
death, he exerted himself to appropriate his succession, 
with an eagerness which seems to have got the better of 
his habitual cunning and caution. The princess Mary, 
daughter of the deceased duke of Burgundy, might pos- 
sibly have been gained in marriage, by skilful negoti- 
ations, for Louis's younger son, the duke d'Angouleme \ 
but as Louis attempted to exercise his authority over 
Mary as a crown vassal, demanded her hand for the 
dauphin, and developed too precipitately his plans of 
union w 7 ith Burgundy, he alienated the princess alto- 
gether from his house. Soon afterwards a marriage 
treaty was closed for her by the states of the Nether- 
lands with the archduke Maximilian, son of the em- 
peror, in w r hom they hoped to find a protector against 
the threatened encroachments of Louis, and a ruler not 
too powerful for the safety of their liberties. 

Immediately on the fall of Charles, the states of Upper 
Burgundy endeavoured, through the agency of delegates, 
at the head of whom stood the archbishop of Besancon, 
to establish for themselves either a sort of independence, 
or a league on equal terms with the Swiss. The Bernese 
alone perceived advantage to the confederation in ac- 
cepting the alliance of these districts ; the other cantons 
preferred receiving 100,000 Rhenish guilders, in consider- 
ation of granting a treaty of peace, and leaving the land 
to its own disposal. They argued that a ransom would 
be shared amongst them equally, while a distant domain 
or alliance would advantage none but the towns. In the 
midst of these discussions, French troops took possession 



1477. 



DEATH OF CHARLES. 



153 



of the district in the name of their master, as feudal 
sovereign, Terms of peace were at length arranged 
between Louis and Maximilian, on condition of France 
ceding Upper Burgundy. Convinced of the importance 
of cajoling the Helvetic body, Louis granted extraor- 
dinary privileges to Swiss settlers in France ; and not 
only gave high appointments to those in his actual ser- 
vice, but, moreover, retained numbers in his permanent 
pay, and dazzled the eyes of the multitude effectually, 
by sending mule loads of gold to glut the avarice of his 
Swiss allies. 



CHAP. X. 

^RA OF THE COVENANT OF STANTZ. 

1477—1481. 

EFFECTS OF THE BURGUNDIAN WAR ON SWITZERLAND. IN- 
CREASE OF CRIME. FEUD OF URI WITH MILAN. BATTLE 

OF GIORNICO. CLAIMS OF SOLEURE AND FREYBURG. DIS- 
SENSIONS. NICOLAS OF THE FLUE. COVENANT OF STANTZ. 

SURVEY OF THE STATE OF THE HELVETIC BODY UP TO THIS 

PERIOD. 

The death of the duke of Burgundy, which excited such 
surprise among the members of his house, and in his 
more remote provinces, that for the space of several 
weeks they disbelieved the intelligence, changed at a 
blow the whole relations of southern and central Europe. 
The renown of Swiss bravery rose higher than ever; 
since, in collision with it, that mighty power was bro- 
ken, in the presence of which the greatest kings had 
trembled. But their glory was too dearly bought by 
deep pervading evils : Swiss valour became from thence- 
forwards a marketable commodity, the value of whicli 
had effects the most destructive to a free state. Fo- 
reigners came to purchase adherents amongst them : the 



154 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1477. 



influence and the gold of France, of Austria, of the 
papacy, of Milan, and of other powers, bore every thing 
down before them in the diets, in the council chambers, 
and general assemblies. The uncorrupt defenders of 
their country's cause, where any such w r ere still to be 
found, were derided or defamed by party leaders ; the 
sober republican spirit disappeared almost entirely; obe- 
dience ceased to be rendered to ill-regulated authorities, 
which themselves transgressed their own laws and limits. 
The sudden wealth diffused by plunder and pensions 
excited its possessors to profusion and extravagance; 
while amongst others it inflamed the desire of procuring 
themselves, at any price, the means for the like indul- 
gences. Love of labour was too often superseded by the 
taste for a loose rapacious idle life ; domestic virtues 
became rare; immorality made public progress. Dis- 
banded soldiers, and idle vagabonds of every other de- 
scription, threatened the public security to such a degree, 
that a diet, held in 1480, decreed the punishment of 
death to all thefts and robberies, the amount of wdiich 
would pay for a rope. Accordingly in a very few months, 
1500 wretches were despatched by the hand of the public 
executioner, although the dean of Einsiedlen Bonstetten 
gives the number of Swiss at that time capable of bear- 
ing arms no higher than between fifty and sixty thousand. 
A surprising state of security for a short time followed 
these rigours ; but similar causes soon reproduced similar 
effects. 

Since the powerful duke of Burgundy, in his first 
collision with Swiss valour, had lost his treasures ; in the 
second, the flower of his army ; and in the third, his 
life, no enemy seemed any longer formidable: there was, 
accordingly, no end of provocations to war on the part 
of the Swiss. 

Some timber had been felled by subjects of Milan, in 
a wood of the Val Levantina belonging to Uri ; where- 
upon the youth of that canton instantly crossed the 
St. Gothard, and retaliated by robbery and ill treatment 
of the Milanese subjects in the neighbouring villages. 



1478. 



BATTLE OF GIORNICO. 



155 



Uri, instead of inflicting condign chastisement on these 
young people, took them under her protection, proclaimed 
war on the Milanese, and applied for aid to the rest of 
the confederates. The latter saw the injustice of the 
proceeding, endeavoured to mediate, but at the same 
time were not willing to desert Uri in this emergency ; 
they therefore despatched troops to act according to the 
circumstances. 

On this the duke of Milan sent considerable forces 
under the command of count Borelli up the Ticino. At 
the village of Giornico lay the Swiss vanguard, consisting 
only of 600 men from Uri, Lucerne, Schwytz,, and Zurich; 
the other confederates, nearly 10,000 strong, were as 
yet far behind. Borelli marched upon Giornico with a 
picked body of troops. It was mid- winter. The Swiss 
flooded the meadows in their front from the Ticino, and 
the surface freezing rapidly, they accoutred themselves 
with skates. As the Milanese cavalry and infantry ad- 
vanced over the slippery field with difficulty they were 
met by the Swiss, who sallied forth from Giornico firm 
on their feet ; and, few as they were, were more than a 
match for the staggering ranks of the numerous enemy. 
Frischhans Theilig, the leader of Lucerne, was, with 
his good sword, the angel of death to the Milanese; 
15,000 of whom fled panic-struck from 600 Swiss. This 
almost incredible victory spread the fame of the Swiss 
through all Italy : Milan purchased peace, paid indem- 
nities, and consented that Uri should retain in fee for 
ever the Val Levantina, and the Val Brugiasco, on the 
tenure of paying annually a waxen taper three pounds in 
weight to the cathedral of Milan. 

The results of the Burgundian war were very pre- 
judicial to the internal connection of the cantons, and 
gave a powerful shock to their already imperfect union. 
Besides the jealousy entertained towards Berne by all 
the others, the rural cantons cherished a distrust of the 
towns : it seemed to them that the latter maintained a 
better understanding with Freyburg and Soleure than 
with them, and they complained of being postponed in 



156 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1480, 



consideration and in influence. It could not be concealed 
from them what enormous sums had flowed into the 
towns from foreign sources : not less were they dissatis- 
fied with the unequal division of plunder. 

The towns of Soleure and Freyhurg had stood stoutly 
by the confederates in most of their wars, especially in 
the late war against Burgundy : Berne took pains to 
procure their admission into the confederacy. On the 
other hand, the people of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden, 
offered strenuous resistance to the measure : they feared 
lest the towns, which far surpassed them in mental cul- 
tivation, might in time become exclusive lords ascendant 
in the confederacy. This jealousy induced them to resist 
the augmentation of the number of the leading towns in 
the league. On the other hand, the towns cherished sus- 
picions of another kind with regard to the free rural 
population. It was suspected that the people of the small 
cantons aimed at establishing equal freedom in all Swit- 
zerland; and thus seducing the subjects of the towns to 
throw off the dominion of the burghers, and erect an 
administration of rural communes. This was a consum- 
mation not devoutly wished by the citizens : they had 
acquired their subjects by purchase or by conquest, and 
were determined to preserve what they called their rights 
over them. 

Thus arose reciprocal distrust in the confederacy; and, 
unfortunately, chance confirmed the suspicions of the 
burghers. Peter of Halden, a stout old soldier, had 
reasons of his own (besides those which he professed to 
partake with the public) for discontent with the landvogt 
of Entlibuch, and the lords of council at Lucerne. He 
and his kinsman, the ex-landamman Heinrich, burgher 
of Obwalden, and his brother-in-law Kiihnegger, were 
occasionally apt to wax warm in their cups on the sub- 
ject of their country's degradation : they spirited each 
other up at length to adventure a bold stroke in the town 
on St. Leonard's day. The men of Obwalden were to 
attend the feast in numbers : the avoyer, the council, 
and the rest of their opponents, were to be summarily 



1481. 



NICOLAS OF THE FLUE. 



157 



despatched, and the fortifications pulled down. Lucerne 
was to be hereafter a petty village, and Entlibuch a 
free state. Such were the high-reaching views of the 
conclave. Unluckily the burghers of Lucerne became 
acquainted with them, as Peter had betrayed himself 
in his pot- variance : he was arrested, confessed all, 
and was condemned to decapitation. 

About the time of this insurrectionary episode, the 
confederates were holding a diet at Stantz, in the canton 
of Unterwalden : it was there that distrust and anger 
broke out openly amongst the cantons on the subject of 
division of the Burgundian booty, admission of the towns, 
&c. &c. The three democratic cantons uttered such 
threats against the towns, while the towns were so ex- 
asperated against the rural cantons, that the delegates of 
Soleure and Freyburg voluntarily and modestly refrained 
from the enforcement of their claims ; and nothing less 
than an instant appeal to arms, and the total dissolution 
of the confederacy, appeared impending. 

A pious hermit, Nicolas of the Flue, had lived in 
solitude many years in the district of Obwalden, ab- 
sorbed in prayer and in holy contemplation. He was re- 
verenced in the whole land on account of his devotion. It 
was said, that he had lived for many years without food, 
except his monthly partaking of the sacrament. He 
slept in a narrow cell upon hard boards, with a stone for 
his pillow ; while his wife, who had brought him ten 
children, lived on their lands in the neighbouring valley. 
He had formerly served his country in the war of the 
Thurgau, with a high reputation for courage and hu- 
manity. 

When this venerable man was made acquainted with 
the discord which prevailed among the confederates, he 
instantly left the hermitage for Stantz, and entered the 
hall where the diet was assembled. All rose from their 
seats to greet so unexpected an apparition. The solitary 
addressed the assembly with the dignity of a messenger 
from heaven, and admonished them to maintain peace 
and concord, in the name of that God who had given 



158 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 1481. 



so many victories to themselves, and to their fathers 
before them. " You have become strong, he said, by the 
force of union, and now will you sever that union for 
the sake of a wretched booty ? Far be it that sur- 
rounding lands should ever hear such things of you. 
Let not the towns insist on claims injurious to the old 
confederates. Let the country places remember how 
Soleure and Freyburg fought at their sides, and freely 
receive them into the confederacy. Beware of foreign 
intrigues, confederates ! beware of internal discords ! 
Far be it from any to take gold as the price of their 
father-land ! " 

4 e It is seldom," says an intelligent Swiss historian *, 
u that truth comes off victorious in the conflict of pas- 
sion, unless its assertor stand out as a being of other 
mould from his hearers. If he seems but a man like 
the men around him, his words will be little heeded." 
The solitary's strange and solemn warning found re- 
sponsive chords in the hearts of the w T hole auditory. In 
-a single hour the affairs at issue were settled. Frey- 
burg and Soleure were received into the confederacy. 
The proposal of the venerable Nicolas, that territorial 
conquests in war should be shared according to cantons, 
but all other spoil, according to population, was acceded 
to. It was also resolved, that no one, without permis- 
sion of the authorities, should assemble popular meet- 
ings, or make dangerous propositions. If the people of 
any canton offered resistance to their legal authorities, 
the rest of the confederates should combine to bring them 
back to obedience. 

The covenant of Stantz, under which title the deci- 
sions of this diet have come down to us, is remarkable 
as the first solemn occasion on which the cantons col- 
lectively fixed and denned their federal constitution. It 
therefore presents a fitting opportunity to pause in our 
narrative, in order to take a review of the Helvetic body 
up to this period, in its principal points of political, 
social, and military developement. 

* Ludwig Meyer of Knonau, 



1481. 



COVENANT OF STANTZ. 



159 



The original idea of the confederation was that of a 
family,, in which all possessed an equality of rights. 
Places of honour were given hut for a short term : the 
burgomaster or avoyer (the highest rank in towns) 
might one year preside in the Helvetic diet, and vanish 
the next in the crowd of burghers, or sit as a common 
member of council. The whole body of burghers was 
assembled to name public officers, decide upon war and 
peace, and enact laws. It was, however, in the rural 
cantons only that this practice continued to exist. The 
increasing population, wars, and treaties of the towns, 
rendered the constant convocation of the body of 
burghers impossible, who, therefore, elected delegates 
to the councils ; without, however, yielding the rights of 
sovereignty in the last resort. 

The mode of procedure in all transactions was simple. 
If any thing seemed too weighty for the little council, 
the great one was convoked, which consisted of numer- 
ous popular delegates. In cases of dispute about the 
meum and tuum, or in which the honour or property of 
a burgher came in question, the judges (commonly mem- 
bers of council) sat in the open air on the highway. 
The accused and accuser could speak for themselves, or 
choose advocates from amongst the judges. In cases 
unprovided for by the laws, the court decided either 
according to precedent, or on principles of equity. All 
severities inflicted upon criminals were regarded as al- 
lowable and salutary. Torture was in general use; and 
any one would have been ridiculed who expressed a fear 
lest innocence might suffer. The pain of death was 
enhanced by all imaginable torments ; such as nipping 
the flesh with red-hot pincers, trailing at the tail of a 
horse, or breaking on the wheel, as gentle preludes, or 
substitutes, to death by the means of fire, sword, or rope. 
Blasphemy, murder, robbery, and theft, were punished 
capitally : lesser offences with banishment, branding, 
slitting of ears, &c. 

For security against attacks, whether from within or 
without, the several cantons joined themselves in a 



160 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND, 



1481. 



federal league, which regulated their relations to each 
other, and the amount of contribution incumbent on each 
for the common defence. The Pfaffenbrief, and that of 
Sempach, mention of which has already been made, 
were the only records of this league since the period of 
its first formation. The provisions made by the latter 
of these documents were ratified and extended by the 
covenant of Stantz. These regulations, prompted by 
the circumstances in which they were made, were in- 
tended to direct the efforts of all to one end, to limit the 
sphere of selfishness, and to curb reckless licentiousness. 
They might, perhaps, have answered their purpose, 
had simplicity and sincerity continued to be cherished 
in Switzerland, while the old confusion still prevailed 
throughout the rest of Europe ; but they proved too 
weak against the inroads of moral corruption in the in- 
terior, and the general advance of civilisation in other 
countries. 

The confederates still did homage to the emperor as 
their liege lord; but held themselves bound to little 
else than not to bear arms against him, and to obtain 
from him, as matter of form, the sanction of their li- 
berties. Common interests were consulted upon at the 
diets of the confederation. The presiding canton, or any 
other in cases of emergency, called together the delegates 
of the rest of the Helvetic body, though it was not very 
clearly defined to whom belonged the right of sitting and 
voting. The inequality of rights amongst the confe- 
derates had an injurious effect on their deliberations, by 
keeping up a constant disposition to distrust and envy, 
and disadvantageous above all was the condition of the 
free bailiwicks. 

The military skill of the confederates stood in the 
highest repute during the infancy of the art of war in 
Europe. Levies of men were made in the towns by 
guilds, in the country by communes and bailiwicks. 
Exceptions from service were rare, and only allowed on 
condition of finding substitutes : those who were unable 
to provide themselves with arms and food were supplied 



1481. MILITARY AND CIVIL POWERS. l6l 

at the expense of their communes. The principal 
-weapons were spears,, halberds, arquebuses, and cross- 
bows. In addition to these, battle-axes and swords were 
considered necessary : knives and daggers came by degrees 
into use. The body was sheathed in armour; the head 
was covered with a helmet, or a strong felt hat, adorned 
with a cock's or ostrich feather. A white cross, stitched 
on several parts of the clothing, served as a badge, for 
which a key of the same colour was substituted in later 
times. The confederates had become familiar, not only 
with the use of guns, but also with that of pieces of 
heavy artillery. Their cavalry, such as it was, was 
formed by noblemen and church vassals. 

The warriors of each canton, however scanty their 
number, took the field under a leader of their own, who, 
as well as the Venner (banner-bearer or banneret) was 
chosen by the government. The election of captains 
was trusted to the communes; twenty or thirty men 
formed a troop. The highest authority, after that of 
the general and banneret, was enjoyed by the commit- 
tees of the council and burghers, who formed the council 
of war with the above-mentioned officers. All matters 
of consequence were laid before the assembled troops, by 
whom the question of peace or war was often, in fact, 
decided, and who considered themselves invested with a 
power at least co-ordinate with that of the council and 
commonalty at home. The most express orders of the 
civil authorities often received the following laconic 
reply : u That a contrary decision had been formed by 
a majority of votes in the army/' 

A declaration of hostilities preceded the invasion of 
an enemy's territory. The Swiss held it dishonourable 
to assail any one without having given him notice of 
their intentions ; they knew not, or despised, the feints 
and manoeuvres adapted to mislead the foe, or force him 
to give battle. Their troops were drawn up for action 
in close column, or in solid squares; after several ranks 
of spearmen came halberdiers; then again spearmen; in 
front or in flank arquebusiers ; in the centre were the 



162 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1481. 



banner and standard bearers. (It may here be observed, 
that the banner of a canton had more importance at- 
tached to it than an ordinary flag, which indeed might 
be inferred from the high rank in the army which, as we 
have already said, was held by its guardian.) The 
troops were exhorted to valour by their officers in the 
presence of the enemy, and then, having invoked on their 
knees, with outstretched arms, the aid of the Deity, 
they rushed with alternate animating cries upon the 
hostile ranks. 

No prisoners were allowed to be made ; none were 
allowed to retreat though wounded ; each was ready to 
cut down his comrade, rather than see him take to flight. 
The Swiss regarded wounds and death so little, and 
obeyed the word of command with such precision, that 
the close mass of their combatants was moved with the 
utmost facility, sometimes forming a wedge, sometimes 
contracting, sometimes extending their lines. The Swiss 
did not distinguish themselves in the siege of fortified 
places. If they failed in the first onset, their zeal cooled 
with marvellous suddenness. They were better skilled to 
provide for the defence of their native country. For that 
end they collected munitions of war of all descriptions, 
barred the passes, announced the approach of the foe by 
beacons, shots, and alarums, and gathered all who could 
move so much as a stick on the point of danger. 

The occupation most congenial to the temper of the 
free Swiss, next to that of a soldier, was that of a shep- 
herd. In the pure air of their mountains, with their 
easy charge of cattle, the longest summer day seemed to 
pass rapidly. The more arduous toils of husbandry were 
comparatively neglected, no branch of trade or manufac- 
tures acquiredleadingimportance, and the insecurity of the 
roads created serious impediments to the transport of com- 
modities through Switzerland from Venice and elsewhere. 

Though no description of privilege was acknowledged, 
yet a difference of ranks came to prevail. Those nobles 
who had settled in the towns, and who had sacrificed 
some advantages in order to secure the rest, maintained 



1481. 



NOBLES AND BURGHERS. 



163 



in many respects a higher footing than the burghers. 
Some were in possession of riches, others of experience 
and knowledge of mankind, all had been from youth 
upwards accustomed to the use of weapons. Beside this 
old nobility, a new sprung up. Men who had enjoyed 
a high reputation on account of their wealth, abilities, 
or achievements, bequeathed consideration to their off- 
spring. Their very name awakened advantageous re- 
miniscences ; their descendants were chosen willingly by 
the people for its leaders, and had various means of 
maintaining and augmenting their wealth and influence. 
On the other hand, in families of a humbler grade, hus- 
bandry, the life of a shepherd, or some mechanical craft, 
descended from generation to generation. But the dif- 
ferent ranks were separated by no impassable chasm : 
the knight of the empire did not shrink from mixing his 
blood with that of the burghers, and hardly aimed at 
higher polish of manners. If instances of collision some- 
times occurred, they were seldom dangerous : the as- 
sumptions of the nobles were met not only with serious 
checks, but with coarse and homely ridicule, — the most 
formidable of all weapons in a state of society stamped 
by familiarity and openness. The homely monosylla- 
bles thee and thou remained in general use, and were 
even employed by governments in their missives to their 
functionaries. The burghers expressed their opinions 
freely on all affairs of a public nature; and the highest 
members of government might be seen at their doors on 
fine evenings, exchanging greetings with all who passed, 
hearing complaints, and imparting counsel. 

But these traces of an earlier sera disappeared by de- 
grees. Simplicity, sincerity, a sense of honour, and love 
of country, daily became of more and more rare occur- 
rence, until at length the all-engrossing thirst for gold 
left no room for any other feeling. Indulgences were 
relinquished with reluctance, to which the Swiss warrior 
had accustomed himself in the course of his campaigns : 
remembrance of past jollities, and disgust at present pri- 
vations rendered his heart of easy access to temptation. 

m 2 



164 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1481. 



What could inspire those with dread, who feared nei- 
ther death nor wounds — who valued protracted exist- 
ence little, and only lived for the moment ? War was 
their watchword ; war afforded full swing to their appe- 
tites ; and decay of . domestic happiness, neglect of 
education,, in short, universal disorder came in its train. 

Those warriors who would while away the interval 
between one campaign and another agreeably betook 
themselves to Baden in Aargau. Here in a narrow 
valley, where the Limmat flows through its rocky bed, 
are hot springs of highly medicinal properties. Hither, 
to the numerous houses of public entertainment, resorted 
prelates, abbots, monks, nuns, soldiers, statesmen, and 
all sorts of artificers. As in our fashionable watering 
places, most of the visitors merely sought to dissipate 
ennui, enjoy life, and pursue pleasure. The baths were 
most crowded at an early hour in the morning, and 
those who did not bathe resorted thither to see ac- 
quaintances, with whom they could hold conversation 
from the galleries round the bath-rooms, while the 
bathers played at various games, or ate from floating 
tables. Lovely females did not disdain to sue for alms 
from the gallery-loungers, who threw down coins of 
small amount to enjoy the ensuing scramble. Flowers 
were strewn on the surface of the water, and the vaulted 
roof rang with music, vocal and instrumental. Towards 
noon the company sallied forth to the meadows in the 
neighbourhood, acquaintances were easily made, and 
strangers soon became familiar. The pleasures of the 
table were followed by jovial pledges in swift succes- 
sion, till fife and drum summoned to the dance. Now 
fell the last barriers of reserve and decorum : and it is 
time to drop a veil over the scene. 

But what horror seized the dissolute crowd when 
intelligence suddenly reached them that the plague 
was spreading its ravages over the land ! Instant flight to 
the farthest mountain-recesses hardly baffled contagion; 
youth and strength afforded no security ; even love and 
friendship yielded to the universal panic, and the sick 



1481. 



THE PLAGUE. 



165 



were left to die without consolation or attendance. The 
wrath of God was traced in this visitation ; the churches 
filled with penitent and penance-performing sinners, and 
pilgrimages were made with all contrition and humility. 
Yet scarcely had the scourge ceased to be felt, when the 
old mode of life was resumed as eagerly as ever. 

Notwithstanding the foregoing statements, Switzer- 
land was perhaps less degraded than the other states 
of Europe ; where the princes carried on warfare at 
discretion, over-ran the lands which they conquered, 
plundered the owners, and fired their dwellings ; while 
even in peace the insecure state of the roads impeded 
intercourse. In most other states, the habits of the 
soldiers, chiefs, and clergy, were even more immoral 
than in Switzerland : public functions were venal ; in- 
humanity was encouraged by the cruel inflictions visited 
upon criminals ; and even palaces were disgraced by the 
most disgusting want of cleanliness. 



CHAP. XL 

LEAGUE OP ST. GEORGE AND SW ASIAN WAR. 

1489—1501. 

ADMINISTRATION, ARREST, AND DEATH OF RANS WALDMANN AT 
ZURICH. — COMPROMISE BETWEEN THE BURGHERS AND PEA- 
SANTRY. PETTICOAT LEAGUE. DIET AT WORMS. FRENCH 

INTRIGUES AND INFLUENCE ON THE HELVETIC BODY. CARE- 
LESSNESS OF THE LATTER WITH REGARD TO PAPAL BULLS AND 

THE PERSON OF THE EMPEROR. ALTERCATIONS WITH THE 

IMPERIALISTS. COMMENCEMENT OF THE SWABIAN WAR. 

SUCCESSES OF THE SWISS AND THE GRISONS. EMPEROR MAX- 
IMILIAN ENTERS THE ENGADINES. RETREATS INTO THE 

TYROL. TREATY OF PEACE. RECEPTION OF BASLE AND 

SCHAFFHAUSEN INTO ALLIANCE WITH THE CONFEDERACY. 

The transient restoration of concord could not restore 
the primitive moral habits of the people. Rapacity and 
ostentation nourished in the towns, corruption in all 
seats of civic authority, immorality and idleness in the 

M 3 



166 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1489. 



people. Young men often marched in troops of hun- 
dreds and of thousands, headed by bands of music, 
over the Rhine and over the Alps, to follow royal 
standards in quest of booty or a grave. Nor was there 
any lack of fuel for their ardour. In one year, on 
the side of Italy, four wars were raging. Inter- 
nal strife and uproar soon recommenced. The noble 
lords and priests of Zurich, who hated Waldmann the 
burgomaster, because he sought to impose bounds on 
their arrogance, inflamed the town and country people 
against him by their discourses. Hans Waldmann was 
the son of a peasant of Zug, and had come to Zurich 
first in the humble character of a tanner, had dis- 
tinguished himself at Morat and at Nancy; and had 
at last attained to eminence by sheer force of courage 
and intellect. But it was now whispered against him, 
that he favoured Milan and Austria; and the Zurichers 
accused him of abuse of power through pride and pas- 
sion. The burgomaster gave himself no concern about 
secret murmurs ; and woe to those who dared to speak 
or act against him openly ! When Theilig of Lucerne, 
the hero of Giornico, who had offended him, came into 
Zurich, bringing bales of cloth for sale, the burgomaster 
caused him to be taken into custody and beheaded, 
though his native town made urgent solicitations for 
the life of her illustrious citizen. 

Such tyranny, notwithstanding his great qualities, 
brought universal hatred, and at length ruin, on Wald- 
mann. His enemies took advantage of the tumults of 
the peasantry, and a revolt of the rural communes on 
the lake of Zurich. The country people advanced in 
arms up to the walls of the town, complaining of the 
injustice of the laws, and of other grievances. Dele- 
gates from the other cantons offered their mediation, 
and at length a proclamation was agreed upon by the 
council, that the complaints of the communes should be 
investigated, and satisfaction given to the people. But 
Waldmann, who thought fit to regard the honour of 
the town as being compromised by such a declaration^ 



1489. 



DEATH OF WALDMANN. 



167 



caused the town- clerk to alter parts of the wording, as 
if the country people had only alleged supposed griev- 
ances, and only obtained thus much by their humble 
supplications, that those grievances should be looked 
into on the first fit opportunity. 

As soon as the falsification of this document be- 
came known, a new revolt took place against the town, 
which, moreover, was disturbed in its interior. The 
burgomaster no longer went out without armour, and 
usually slept at the town hall. Authority is tottering 
when it protects itself by any other panoply than the 
popular attachment. The burgomaster Waldmann was 
tumultuously arrested, put to the torture, and finally 
decapitated, on the 6th of April, 1489- 

On the day of his death, the subjects and authorities 
of Zurich presented themselves as parties before the bar 
of the confederacy, who brought about a permanent 
agreement between them. It was enjoined upon the 
peasantry, in the first place, to be faithful and obedient 
to the great council of Zurich. On the other hand, 
the privilege was granted them of bringing their com- 
modities to what market they pleased, of exporting them 
wherever they chose, of exercising arts and trades in 
the villages, planting vines and purchasing lands at 
pleasure, electing a sub-vogt in the lake-district, &c. 
If at any time the town attempted to exercise a lawless 
power on their subjects in the rural communes, the lat- 
ter should send delegates to the diet of the confederacy, 
that justice might be done to their complaints. This 
instrument was signed on the 9 tn of May, 1489., for 
the seven cantons of the confederacy, by their dele- 
gates. 

New matter of mistrust occurred to revive the old 
ill will subsisting between the confederates and Austria, 
on the refusal of the former to join the new league of 
St. George, otherwise called the Swabian, and derisively, 
the Petticoat League, from a sort of kilt at that time 
worn by the nobles, which, at a later period, came into 
general use amongst the people, and was called a jupe, or 

m 4 



168 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1495. 



petticoat, in the sumptuary laws of Thurgau, dated 1530. 
To this league the princes, counts, and knights of the 
empire, and the towns of the Franconian, Swabian, and 
Rhenish circles, acceded, partly of free will, partly on 
compulsion. Its ostensible object was to put an end to 
the still existing system of club-law, and the prevalent 
abuses of the right of self-defence. Its secondary and 
secret intent was to overawe the Bavarian dukes, and 
other turbulent members of the empire, who made them- 
selves obnoxious by opposing the will of the emperor, or 
disturbing the tranquillity of their neighbours. The 
confederates, who clearly saw that a league of this de- 
scription threatened themselves as well as others with 
subjection, declined all accession to the compact. These 
considerations, however, did not prevent most of the free 
imperial towns and trading corporations from joining the 
new project of alliance, which held out hopes of in- 
creased security for trade and communication. They 
stigmatised those who refused concurrence as partisans 
of anarchy. " So frequently," says an eloquent Swiss 
annalist, " does the love of freedom yield to the love of 
profit!" 

The grand diet of 1495, at Worms, where Maximilian 
called for the aid of the empire against France and the 
Turks, where private feuds were prohibited under pain 
of the ban of the empire, and the court of the Imperial 
Chamber erected for the general administration of justice, 
was attended, indeed, by delegates from Switzerland; 
but the proposal of taking 6000 Swiss into the pay of 
the empire was without effect. So were not the largesses 
and intrigues of Bailli of Dijon, the indefatigable French 
agent in Switzerland. This man, who was familiarly 
nicknamed the Baillie, explicitly declared to the Bernese 
delegates, that if his purposes were thwarted by the few, 
he should know how to effect them through the many. 
To such a pitch may things come in a country, where 
once foreign influence is permitted to establish itself. 
More than 20,000 Swiss were soon under arms for France 
in Lombardy. Berne was so completely forced to tern- 



1495. 



PETTICOAT LEAGUE. 



169 



pori.se with the French party, that she sent envoys to 
welcome the troops returning from that service, depressed 
as they were by the losses they had suffered, and dis- 
figured by the loathsome aspect of many among their 
number, who returned from Naples infected with a for- 
midable malady, which was then supposed indigenous 
in that city, and was naturalised too speedily all over 
Europe. 

Renewed demands of the empire on the confederates, 
and renewed warnings against the intrigues of France, 
remained equally ineffectual with all former ones; though 
Berne was still devoted to the emperor, and exerted 
herself vainly to prevent enlistments for France. The 
pope was now called upon to support the imperial dignity 
against all who should continue recusant ; but, on man- 
dates being issued by the papal legate at Lindau, which 
threatened with excommunication all who should refuse 
to quit the service of France, the confederates replied by 
simply appealing to a better informed pope or to a general 
council. The elector of Mentz, who acted as high- 
chancellor of the empire, showing his pen to the Swiss 
delegates, gave them to understand how serious evils 
that little implement might draw upon their common- 
wealth. They replied, that what halberts had failed in 
doing, goose-quills were not likely to do. And when 
the emperor declared, that he himself, if they should 
still refuse compliance, would stand foremost against 
them, Conrad Schwend, the burgomaster of Zurich, re- 
turned for answer, Ci Our people are so ignorant and 
rustic, that I fear they might not even spare the imperial 
crown itself." 

Though many who had joined the Swabian league 
were discontented with it, and many feared the loss of 
that degree of independence which had hitherto been pre- 
served among the members of the empire, yet the number 
of the foes of the Swiss confederacy increased in a still 
, greater proportion. Many powerful lords retained here- 
ditary aversion to it. Many towns and subjects envied 
its privileges, and many Germans were scandalised at 



170 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1499- 



seeing the confederates continually arrayed against them 
under the flag of France. Reciprocal abuse took place* 
on every opportunity. Cow-houses and cow-herds were 
the delicate appellations most commonly bestowed upon 
the Swiss and their country. ec Spare me, spare me, 
dear good bull-heads ! " cried an unlucky Swabian when 
made captive by the Swiss in the ensuing war ; and his 
curious cry for mercy having only procured him worse 
treatment, he solemnly swore he had never heard any 
other name applied to the Swiss. Numerous satirical 
songs enhanced the mutual embitterment. 

If the emperor and princes of the empire regarded 
the confederates as rebels, the latter, on the other hand, 
appealed to existing treaties ; and to much that these 
might not expressly contain they considered long pos- 
session as having given them a prescriptive right. During 
the absence of the emperor in the Netherlands, his Ty- 
rolese councillors, who distinguished themselves beyond 
the rest in prompting the most arbitrary measures, re- 
solved to delay hostilities no longer against the Grisons, 
whom they viewed as the most recent revolters. About 
the middle of January, 1499; they marched a force of 
4000 men into the Munster-thal, on the border of the 
Engadines. On this, Uri, and soon afterwards the six 
other cantons, despatched reinforcements to the Grisons. 

Berne still had hopes of preserving peace, and the 
bishops of Constance and Coire effected an armistice. 
But a series of provocations from the Austrians soon 
brought about the commencement of that contest to 
which history has given the name of the Swabian war, 
without any declaration of hostilities. Meyenfeld was 
given up by treachery to the enemy, who massacred the 
garrison, and occupied the town and the neighbouring 
mountain passes. Even before the reinforcements arrived 
from the other cantons, the men of the Grisons carried 
away the honour of the first victory, in which 400 of 
the enemy were slain : the rest retreated into the castle 
of Gertenberg. 

The enemy marching from Constance had succeeded 



U99- 



SWABIAN WAR. 



171 



in surprising the Swiss garrison of Emmatingen in their 
sleep, and killing seventy-three defenceless men in their 
beds. But they paid for it severely in the thickets of 
Schwaderloch, when 18,000 of them were routed by 
barely 2000 Swiss, so that they found the gates of Con- 
stance all too narrow to receive them in their flight, and 
reckoned a greater number of slain than there had been 
of Swiss arrayed against them. 

A body of Swiss on the Upper Rhine marched into 
the Wallgau, where the enemy was entrenched near 
Frastenz, 14,000 strong. Heinrich Wolleb of Uri en- 
couraged his men to disregard these odds against their 
own comparatively scanty numbers: they rushed under the 
roar of the artillery on the ranks of Austria, and strewed 
the plain with thousands of hostile corpses. The rest 
of the Austrians, panic-struck, made their escape through 
wood and water; " for then," says a native historian^, 
" every Swiss fought as if the victory depended on his 
single arm : for the glory of his country every one rushed 
with cheerful countenance on danger and death, and 
never counted the numbers of the enemy." The men 
of the Grisons fought with no less vigour, as was tes- 
tified on the Malserheath, in the Tyrol, where 15,000 
Austrians were attacked in their entrenchments, and com- 
pletely routed, by a band of only 8000 men from the 
Grisons. 

When the emperor Maximilian, in the Netherlands, 
heard of battles upon battles being lost by his armies, 
he addressed himself to the princes of the empire for 
aid against the Swiss boors, ec in whom there was no 
virtue, noble blood, or moderation." Eager for revenge, 
he marched in person at the head of 15,000 men, to 
attempt once more the subjection of the Grisons. The 
inhabitants of the Engadines, with noble self-devotion, 
burned their huts, and retired into the mountains. They 
annoyed the enemy by rolling fragments of rock on them 
from the heights ; and in two days' time the army was 
reduced to such a condition, as to be well pleased to 

* Glutz Blotzheim. 



172 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1499- 



effect its retreat back into the Tyrol, although not without 
considerable loss. 

Peace was at length negotiated, and finally concluded, 
on the 22d of September, 1499. The emperor con- 
firmed the confederates in the possession of their ancient 
rights and conquests, and ceded to them, besides, the 
jurisdiction over the Thurgau, which had hitherto been 
a privilege of the town of Constance. Thenceforward the 
emperors never again entertained the idea of attempting 
to dissolve the confederacy, or annexing its domains to 
the German empire. 

ec Thus ended," says a Swiss historian, (e the last war 
of the old confederates in the cause of their own freedom 
and independence. They came out of the struggle in 
which they had defended their hereditary rights against 
the empire and the emperor more renowned, more re- 
spectable, than ever. But notwithstanding all the favours 
of fortune, which crowned confederate valour with its 
well-earned rewards, the period of this war has much 
matter of distressing meditation for the true friend of 
his country ; who may draw from it too plain prognosti- 
cations of the following universal tide of corruption/' 

The reception of the towns of Basle andSchaffhausen 
into a closer league with the cantons followed imme- 
diately on the Swabian war. 

Basle, an ancient free town of the empire, distin- 
guished by its advantageous site and growing magnitude, 
the seat of an university, of a bishopric, and an extensive 
trade, and the market of the whole surrounding region, 
had long adhered, without any positive compact, to the 
confederacy, and had often received its friendly aid in 
cases of emergency. During the Swabian war, the town 
was torn by intestine divisions. The burghers took the 
confederate, the nobility the Swabian, side ; and both par- 
ties, openly and secretly, afforded every service in their 
power to their respective friends. The confederates here- 
upon marched into the district of Basle, made threaten- 
ing demonstrations towards the town, and demanded to 
know whether they were to look upon its citizens as 



1501. ALLIANCE WITH BASLE AND SCHAFFHAUSEN. 173 

friends or as enemies. On this the nobles fled, and 
amused themselves, during their self-inflicted exile, in 
committing highway robberies on the merchants of their 
native town. The latter applied for aid to the con- 
federates, who gladly embraced the occasion of forming 
a closer alliance with Basle, which was formed in 1501, 
to mutual satisfaction, though with some opposition from 
the rural population. There was never a more joyous 
day in Basle than that of her reception into the league 
of the confederacy. The magistrates rode in solemn 
procession to meet the Swiss delegates, who entered the 
town on the festival of its patron saint, the emperor 
Henry. The procession of the delegates, the council and 
the burghers, first visited the cathedral, and from thence, 
after attending the holy office, went to the corn-market. 
The treaty of alliance was here read from a scaffolding, 
and reciprocally sworn to by the contracting parties. 

The flourishing town of Schaffhausen had been leagued 
with the confederacy more closely even than Basle since 
1454, and had always shown unimpeachable fidelity. 
Its reasonable desire to become a member of the con- 
federacy was therefore at length gratified in 1501. 
Thus was the league of the Thirteen Cantons completed 
nearly two centuries after the deed of William Tell. The 
Valais and the Grisons were also allied with the con- 
federacy ; and the free towns of St. Gall, Miihlhausen, 
and Rothweil in Swabia, were joined with it in a league 
of mutual defence. 



174 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1499. 



CHAP. XII. 

ITALIAN EXPEDITIONS. 

1499—1522, 

CORRUPTION OF THE HELVETIC BODY. LOUIS XII. LUDOVIC 

SFORZA. FRENCH OCCUPATION OF MILAN. CLAIMS OF THE 

CONFEDERATES ON THE MILANESE AND BELLINZONA. ENLIST- 
MENTS OF SFORZA IN SWITZERLAND. OF LOUIS. SFORZA 

BETRAYED BY THE SWISS. IMPRISONED BY THE FRENCH FOR 

LIFE. TREATY OF THE EMPEROR WITH THE CONFEDERACY.- — 

FRUSTRATED BY FRENCH INTRIGUES. LEAGUE OF CAMBRAY. 

BATTLE OF AGNADELLO. CHARACTER OF SCHINNER BISHOP 

OF SION. ALLIANCE AGAINST THE POPE BETWEEN THE 

FRENCH KING AND THE EMPEROR. HOLY LEAGUE AGAINST 

FRANCE. GASTON DE FOIX. FRENCH EXPELLED FROM 

ITALY BY THE POPE, SWISS, AND VENETIANS. DUCHY OF 

MILAN RECONQUERED BY THE FRENCH WHO ARE DEFEATED 

BY THE SWISS AT NOVARA. EXPEDITION OF THE LATTER TO 

DIJON. PEACE WITH FRANCE. FRANCIS I. INVADES PIED- 
MONT. BATTLE OF MARIGNANO PERPETUAL PEACE BE- 
TWEEN FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND. 

After having viewed the Helvetic hody in the first and 
brightest epoch of its freedom, then engaged in civil and 
intestine commotions, afterwards exalted to the pinnacle 
of martial glory, and finally triumphant in its latest 
struggle for independence, we have now to regard its 
members in a state of rapid decay, selling their victorious 
arms by auction to the highest bidder, and shamefully 
staining their former fame for constancy and honour. 
It is impossible to trace without a feeling of repugnance 
the relations, whether foreign or domestic, in which 
Switzerland was engaged during a period which, in spite 
of martial achievements, must be deemed the most 
deplorable and disgraceful of her history. Neither 
honourable connections with foreign powers, nor salutary 
arrangements in the interior, will henceforth yield the 



1499* CORRUPTION OF THE HELVETIC BODY. 175 

materials of our narrative. It became the only object 
of state policy in Switzerland to drive a lucrative traffic 
with the blood of its inhabitants ; and though the article 
must be acknowledged to have fetched a high price, it 
is not the less a scandalous blot in the history of the 
country, that so vile a trade should so long have remained 
the only one pursued with any energy by the people and 
its leaders. It is true, that the Helvetic seats of go- 
vernment were surrounded with more outward splendour 
than ever. Ambassadors crowded thither from the em- 
peror, from the pope, and from many other monarchs, 
princes, nobles, and free towns, soliciting, with emulous 
zeal, their friendship and alliance, and bidding against 
each other for the iron arm of Switzerland, by offers of 
absolution, special privileges, rich presents, large pen- 
sions, and high pay. 

This state of things, which was looked upon by the 
many as the very acme of glory and prosperity, a few 
regarded, on better grounds, as pregnant with the worst 
evils ; for even a superficial view was enough to reveal 
the misery which was ill disguised by tinsel decorations. 
The social mischiefs generated by foreign bribes and 
foreign service were so obvious, even at the very times 
we are treating of, that the governments of the cantons 
were compelled, however reluctantly, to issue repeated 
prohibitions of pensions and enlistments, and to threaten 
severe penalties against the transgressors. Unfortunately, 
however, for the effect of these regulations, while the 
members of successive diets raised their right hands in 
solemn abjuration of the receipt of foreign pensions, the 
left palm was secretly extended to receive them. This 
melancholy period is delineated as follows in the ener- 
getic language of old Bullinger : — " In these times it 
stood ill with the confederates, whom many princes and 
lords solicited secretly and openly, proffering and pro- 
mising moneys, and misleading simple people who had 
heretofore known little of such dealings. Moreover, 
the confederates were divided amongst themselves, — 
some being for the papacy, some for France, and some 



176 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1499, 



for the empire, — whereby the old simplicity and bro- 
therly love were extinguished, and the bond of the con- 
federacy loosened. A lewd and wanton life was com- 
monly practised, with gluttony, gaming, dancing, and 
all manner of wantonness, day and night, especially 
where diets were held, as at Zurich, Lucerne, and Baden. 
The common people in town and country were drawn 
away from honest labour to idleness, lewdness, and war- 
like undertakings, — and reckless and abandoned habits 
thus prevailed every where." 

The king of France, Louis XII., and the duke of 
Milan, Ludovic Sforza, surnamed Moro, or the Moor, 
from his dark complexion, had co-operated zealously in 
mediating peace between the confederates and the em- 
peror ; not that either of them cared for the welfare of 
Switzerland, but because they both stood in need of the 
stout arms of the Swiss to combat with each other for 
Milan, which the latter ruled de facto, while the former 
set up claims to it. This was the second" enterprise pre- 
pared by France against Italy ; but it differed from the 
former, undertaken by Charles VIII., in being primarily 
directed against Sforza (the very man whose alliance had 
principally occasioned the Italian expedition of that mo- 
narch), and in pointing against that former friend of 
France the arms of Italian powers which till then had 
ranked with her enemies.* An alliance had been formed 
against Sforza between the pope, the king of France, and 
the republic of Venice, which made his position one of 
extreme danger, and compelled him to take every means 
for procuring the aid of Switzerland, which seemed to 
afford his only hope of rescue. The confederates long 
hesitated which side they should choose. The voice of 
reason, urging to remain neutral, was heard in vain. 
The majority maintained that the Swiss, the resources 
of whose territory did not suffice to nourish all its 
offspring, must of necessity seek foreign sources of re- 
venue. These were alone to be found in foreign alli- 
ances; and the only point for careful consideration was 

* See Sismondi, Rep. Ital. vol. xiii. c. 99. 



1499- 



LOUIS XII. LUDOVICO SFORZA. 



177 



from what quarter the greatest amount of profit was to 
be looked for. Duke Sforza had already found the gold 
of France an obstacle in the attainment of his views on 
the confederates, and its magnetic influence once again 
attracted the majority. Moreover Sforza, in 1496, had 
refused recognition of the privileges acquired by the con- 
federates in the Milanese, and when the Swabian war 
broke out had assumed a hostile attitude towards them. 
All this had very naturally estranged them from his 
interests, and tended to frustrate his latter attempts to 
engage them in his alliance. Louis, on the other hand, 
spared neither gold nor promises, closed a defensive 
alliance with them, aided them in the Swabian war, and 
thus acquired the attachment of the great mass of the 
people. Both princes commenced active preparations 
for hostilities. No prohibitions, not even the threat of 
capital punishment, could deter Swiss soldiers from de- 
serting their country's service, and from going over to 
that of France or Milan, even before the conclusion of 
peace between Switzerland and the emperor. 

Sforza' s situation became more and more critical. 
How, indeed, could he enter the lists, with any hope 
of success, against the power of France and of her 
warlike allies ? He therefore hastened anxiously to co- 
operate in the conclusion of peace between Austria and 
the confederates, in order to conciliate the latter by his 
good offices, and acquire claims on their subsequent 
assistance. But even before the close of that peace, 
Milan was in the hands of France by the aid of a large 
body of Swiss troops, who had engaged in the French 
service in defiance of their governments. Sforza, who 
was detested by his subjects, found himself abandoned 
by all on the approach of the French army, and only 
succeeded with difficulty in placing himself and his 
treasures in safety, under the protection of the emperor. 
In August, 1499, the French were in possession of the 
whole duchy excepting the Valteline. 

The confederates, on receiving the intelligence of these 
events from Louis XIL, immediately resolved to prohibit 

N 



178 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



15C0. 



all engagements in the service of Sforza, to send the 
king an embassy of congratulation, to demand the re- 
storation of their rights over the Milanese, as well as the 
town and domain of Bellinzona for Uri, and to recall 
to recollection the remaining arrears in the subsidies. 
The confederates received friendly treatment and royal 
largesses, but their claims were only answered with 
empty words. This, with the indifferent treatment be- 
stowed on the Swiss soldiers, alienated numbers from 
France. Sforza gladly seized the opportunity of win- 
ning the confederates back to his interests. The diet 
showed itself now disposed to listen to his proposals ; 
but even before he had time to make them, 5000 Swiss 
had joined his standards, consisting principally of those 
who had been ill treated by France. The duke advanced 
rapidly upon Como, with these and other troops from 
the Valais. The French had rendered the people of 
Milan averse to them by their arrogance and utter con- 
tempt of discipline, and had reduced that people to long 
for the return of their old master, whom they now found 
infinite reasons for preferring to their new one. Po- 
pular revolts prepared the restoration of Sforza. With 
the exception of a few fortified places, he reconquered 
his whole duchy not less rapidly than he had lost it. He 
was welcomed back with joyous acclamations into his 
capital ; reinforced his army, and advanced upon No- 
vara, which surrendered, with the exception of the ci- 
tadel. 

It was not before Sforza had succeeded in regaining 
the good will of the confederates, that Louis was aware 
of the impending danger. He demanded instant aid 
and reinforcements from the confederation. These were 
promised, on condition that the subsidies in arrear were 
paid, and that all legitimate claims of the confederates 
were conceded. The envoys of Milan and Austria co- 
operated with admirable skill against France. Sforza 
in the mean time had reconquered Milan. In these 
circumstances, Bailli of Dijon, whose merits have already 
been alluded to as a member of the French embassy, 



1500. 



SFORZA BETRAYED BY THE SWISS. 



179 



employed the only infallible expedient to arm the Swiss 
in the interests of France. He travelled from one place 
to another ; distributed gold in handfuls ; did not hesi- 
tate to gratify the most impudent demands; and by these 
methods, with or without consent of the cantonal go- 
vernments, he had soon levied a force of 24,000 Swiss. 
Freyburg was selected for the place of rendezvous. The 
troops were soon in motion for Italy, joined the French 
army, marched upon No vara, and for the first time, 
Swiss stood against Swiss in the pay of foreigners. 

The news of the advance of this army had reached 
Sforza; but relying on the promises of the diet, he re- 
fused to believe it, and rejected the advice of his more 
clear-sighted Swiss officers to fall back upon Milan, 
where men and money, provisions, fortifications, in a 
word, all the requisites for withstanding the French, lay 
at his disposal. In the mean time, a diet at Lucerne 
decided that the Swiss engaged on both sides should 
be ordered home, and resolved, besides, to offer its me- 
diation to the belligerent powers ; but all was already 
decided before the arrival of its delegates. The over- 
whelming force of France had shut up the duke in 
Novara ; and the castle was, moreover, in their hands. 
These material advantages were, besides, aided by 
treachery. The Swiss officers on both sides came to 
a secret understanding. Many deserted from the duke ; 
a few, perhaps, prompted by indisposition to fight 
against their countrymen, but most from a more tender 
care for their gold and for their booty. Those who 
remained clamoured for their pay, raised disturbances, 
and threatened to disband and return to their homes. 
The duke was in a manner constrained to a vigorous 
resolution by the greatness and the imminence of his 
danger. He resolved to cut his way through the be- 
sieging force to Milan ; marched his troops out, and 
charged with his cavalry. At this critical moment, the 
Swiss in his service wheeled round, declaring that they 
would not fight against their countrymen in the French 
army. This movement decided the fate of Sforza. The 

n 2 



ISO 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND, 



1500. 



Swiss,, without his consent or knowledge, treated with 
the French,, and stipulated free egress for all except the 
duke and several Milanese nobles. The only point they 
yielded to the entreaties of their betrayed employer was 
the permission to accompany their march in disguise. 
He joined their ranks accordingly in the garb of a com- 
mon soldier, or, by the account of some authors of a 
Cordelier monk, but was betrayed by Rudolph Turmann, 
a native of Uri, and languished out the remainder of his 
days in a French dungeon. His mercenary Swiss, on 
their return to their country, were received as the re- 
ports which had preceded them well warranted : not 
only had they entered foreign service at a moment when 
their country was endangered by a w T ar not yet concluded, 
but they had taken gold from both sides at once, had 
deserted from the one to the other, and had robbed foreign 
merchants within the peaceful borders of Switzerland. 
Strict investigation and severe animadversion were en- 
joined by the diet on the several cantons. Some of the 
delinquents in effect were punished ; but illicit enlist- 
ments were too closely connected with the pensions and 
emoluments of leading men to allow T that results of any 
great consequence should ensue. Rudolph Turmann, 
whose offence was at least one of the most flagrant, was 
executed at Uri by way of atonement for the common 
guilt. 

The Swiss reputation for valour and rapacity had 
become diffused so widely by their mercenary victories, 
that their services were sure to be solicited wherever 
martial work was on hand ; but all other demands w r ere 
disregarded, so soon as the rival powers of France and 
Austria entered the field. France, indeed, had played 
them false on many former occasions, yet France con- 
tinued still the general favourite, through her well-timed 
liberality in pecuniary largesses. On the other hand, 
the recent reminiscences of the Swabian war had revived 
the old distrust against Austria ; yet the emperor, too, 

* M^moires de Louis de La Tremouille, cited by Sismondi, Hist, des 
Rep. Italiermes, torn. xiii. p, 64. 



1505. MAXIMILIAN TREATS WITH THE SWISS. IS! 

had many friends in Switzerland, whom he partly owed 
to political considerations, and partly to the slights and 
affronts of France. In 1501 the rival potentates took 
the field against each other; and both renewed their 
active applications to the confederates. Maximilian 
claimed their escort, as members of the holy Roman 
empire, in his coronation-progress to Rome, and justified 
the Italian nickname bestowed on him of Massimiliano 
pochi denari, by humbling himself so far as to offer 
mortgages of part of his land as securities for the pen- 
sions which he promised them. This roused the com- 
petition of the French, who were secure of winning the 
day with Swiss cupidity, as the envoys of Maximilian 
could only plead their cause in words and writings, 
while those of France employed the stronger rhetoric of 
ready money. In November, 1505, the existing pro- 
hibitions against pensions were repealed; and the council 
and burghers of Berne were released on the authority of 
the bishop of Lausanne, from the obligation of the oaths 
which they had taken on that subject. Nor did the 
diets affect much longer hesitation, when Louis desired 
leave to levy 4000 men under the titles of a body- 
guard and guard of honour. The labour-loathing youth 
of .the cantons flocked in numbers to meet the sum- 
mons : 8000 were enlisted by the French, - — many re- 
jected. It was not until the actual march of the 
troops that the affair seemed to inspire the diet with 
scruples. The new recruits were accordingly ordered 
not to cross the Po. But the French dollars spoke to 
their apprehensions more conclusively than any declar- 
ation of the diet : they crossed the Po ; assisted in the 
conquest of Genoa, and were shortly after dismissed by 
the king with abundance of pay and flattery. Louis 
returned triumphantly through Milan into France. 

Maximilian was divided between anger and apprehen- 
sion, when he found that the confederates had attached 
themselves to his enemy. Yet he did not despair of 
ultimate success in his designs. He convoked a solemn 
diet at Constance in 1507, at which delegates from Swit- 

n 3 



182 KIST071Y OF SWITZERLAND. 1507* 

zerland attended, and were received with high honours 
and rich presents. They acceded to the decisions of the 
diet, and promised to escort the emperor's Roman ex- 
pedition with a body of 6000 men ; providing only that 
nothing should be undertaken hostile to France. Maxi- 
milian exhausted his store of flatteries and favours to 
secure the duration of these good dispositions. On the 
return of the Swiss delegates from Constance, the can- 
tons confirmed the treaty with the emperor ; but French 
intrigues soon changed the aspect of affairs. The French 
ambassador, Rocquebertin, kept open house in Zurich, 
and was friendly and accessible to all comers. In Baden, 
where crowds of military adventurers and easy fair ones 
assembled, rather for pleasure than for health, he often 
paid the score for whole parties, and threw gold into the 
baths, and among the women. His colleague, Pierre- 
Louis, acted the same part at Lucerne as he had done 
at Zurich and Baden. The effects of this expenditure 
were to render the confederates more and more lukewarm 
in the service of the emperor ; and every successive 
meeting of the diet subtracted from the number of the 
promised escort. The disposition to fulfil their recent 
engagements had entirely disappeared in most places ; 
but Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden, still offered their 
services, and promised to send 8000 men to support the 
imperial army. Parties became more and more heated, 
and threatened to produce a civil war. It came under 
discussion at the diet by what means this calamity could 
be averted ; and several of the cantonal governments 
found themselves compelled to make regulations against 
the proceedings of the French embassy. Happily for 
the peace of the confederacy, the ardour of the Germans 
cooled along w T ith their own ; and the Roman expe- 
dition was abandoned. 

To retrieve the ill success of this abortive undertaking, 
and to revenge himself on Venice for having contributed 
to its failure, Maximilian eagerly caught at the scheme 
for the ruin of that republic contained in the so called 
League of Cambray of 1508, planned by pope Julius II., 



1509. BATTLE OF AGNADELLO. ISS 

in alliance with France and Spain, for the partition of 
the Venetian territory. To this alliance also acceded 
Savoy, Ferrara, and Mantua. It was whispered that 
the league was directed not only against Venice, but 
against free commonwealths in general, and would con- 
sequently endanger the confederates. This apprehen- 
sion for once procured a hearing to the warnings of the 
true friends of their country. Strong measures were 
proposed against enlistments ; but as soon as the tempt- 
ing dollars tinkled, the drums beat, and the flags waved, 
— all was forgotten, — and numerousbands of confederates 
rushed into the field. An embassy from Venice arrived 
too late in Switzerland, for the purpose of directing the 
attention of the diet to the common danger, and effect- 
ing between the two republics a useful and sincere 
alliance. Already, on the 14th May, the French, sup- 
ported by 6000 confederates, had won the battle of 
Agnadello over the .Venetians, which would have as- 
suredly sealed the doom of the latter, if the jealousy 
and disunion of the allies, and especially the altered 
views of the pope, had not rescued from ruin the then 
mistress of the seas. After the battle of Agnadello, 
Julius II. began to apprehend the preponderance of the 
French, whom he hated ; and his rancour against Ve- 
nice yielded at length to more cool-blooded political cal- 
culations. Accordingly, he made overtures to the latter, 
and did every thing in his power to break the league, 
and, if possible, to arm most of its members against 
France. His views were chiefly directed towards the 
confederacy. His confidential counsellor, Matthew Schin- 
ner, bishop of Sion, entered Switzerland with a good 
store of gold and absolutions ; and on the 13th March, 

1510, a league "for the defence of the church" was closed 
betwixt the pope and the cantons ; the confederates en- 
gaging to supply 6000 men, while the holy father pledged 
himself to the distribution of various ghostly and worldly 
benefactions. 

The extraordinary man who brought this alliance to 
pass, who impressed thereby a direction altogether un- 

n 4 



184 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1500. 



expected on the whole political system of the confe- 
derates, and became then cef or wards the soul of all their 
enterprises against France,, claims our attention on ac- 
count of the influence exercised for a considerable time 
by him on the destiny of Switzerland. His parents 
were of humble station in Miihlebach, in the Upper 
Valais. His destiny brought him in contact during 
boyhood with an old priest, who knew how to excite 
his pupil's soul to high endeavours. Schinner gained 
distinction as a scholar at Zurich and Como, by assi- 
duity and versatile talent. He exhibited an early pre- 
dilection for the study of the ancient Roman writers ; 
his pittance was devoted to the purchase of their works, 
for which he willingly paid the price of every conve- 
nience, and almost every necessary of lifer His learn- 
ing, spirit, and eloquence, combined with his ascetic 
mode of life and rigid morality, attracted great attention 
to his preaching, while he was yet only a parish priest in 
the Valais. The bishop remarked him, and favoured 
his rise, which soon became so rapid, that in 1500 he 
himself obtained the episcopal office, and with it a sphere 
commensurate to his activity and ambition. From 
thenceforward his hand might be traced in all affairs of 
importance. His energy in word and act, his over- 
powering eloquence, his intrepid zeal in the cause of his 
native country, his immovable fidelity to the papal court, 
together with his bitter hatred of France, excited and 
enabled him to arm all Europe against that power, and 
to spread his own renown throughout the civilised world. 
He possessed, in a high degree, the art of veiling his 
acute views with the semblance of extreme simplicity ; 
had friends and connections every where ; and was ini- 
tiated thoroughly into all the deepest mysteries of state- 
craft, so as to give colour and countenance to the popular 
superstition, that a familiar demon disclosed to him 
whatever was hidden from others. Most means ap- 
peared legitimate to him in furtherance of his ends ; 
but all became allowable when the object was to gratify 
his hatred of France. It was sympathy in this point 



1509* ALLIANCE AGAINST THE POPE. 185 

which procured for him the confidence of the similarly- 
disposed Julius II.; and the services which he rendered 
towards the gratifying of that pontiff's resentments, and 
his own, procured his nomination to the dignity of car- 
dinal. 

The ten years* alliance which Louis had closed with 
the confederacy in 1499^ came to a conclusion, without 
either of the contracting parties showing any desire to 
renew it. France stood on the most amicable footing with 
the emperor, and in the most favourable situation with 
regard to all other powers ; so that Louis thought him- 
self able to do without the purchase of Swiss blood. He 
was besides induced, by ill-timed motives of parsimony, 
to prefer the cheaper services of the Landsknechts ; and 
he thought himself sure, in any case of emergency, of 
obtaining as many Swiss as he chose, without consent 
of their governments. The cantons were as little dis- 
posed as the king to protract the alliance. As soon as 
the French had gained their own purposes, they had 
treated the confederates with their customary insolence. 
After the victory of Agnadello, to the gaining of which 
Swiss soldiers had so powerfully contributed, they were 
dismissed from the French army without their pay, and 
loaded with insults. Louis himself, when the confe- 
derates, in the course of negotiation, demanded higher 
pensions in return for their services, is said to have re- 
plied, that he was not accustomed to let mountain-boors 
like them prescribe laws to him. He proceeded to con- 
nect himself more closely with Maximilian ; and the 
two princes resolved to attack the pope, and to deprive 
him of his spiritual and secular prerogatives ; of the 
former by a council of the church convened at Pisa, of 
the latter by the force of arms. The first scheme was 
frustrated by Julius, who thundered his anathemas on 
the council of Pisa, and convoked an opposition-council 
at Rome. The former body, moreover, was compelled 
by a popular revolt to fly to Milan. The secular arms of 
the royal allies had, however, better fortune. The papal 
army was soon driven back on all points ; and Rome 



■186 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1512. 



would, in all probability, have fallen into the hands of 
Louis, if some inexplicable scruple had not withheld him 
from desecrating by military violence the residence of 
God's vicegerent on earth. The French army fell 
back again upon Milan ; and its departure relieved the 
pope from a severe illness, the effect of disappointment 
and anxiety. 

It was not, however, long before Julius contrived to 
engage Spain, England, and Venice in the so called holy 
league against France ; even Maximilian wavered, and 
his ambassadors secretly hinted at the diet of the con- 
federacy, that if the latter meditated any attack on 
France, they need not be deterred by fear of hostilities 
from the emperor. At the same time Maximilian 
showed himself willing to recall the German Lands- 
knechts from the French service. But Louis did not 
let himself be intimidated. Troops of Germans, Italians, 
even of Swiss, joined his army; and the excellence of 
his general Gaston de Foix, duke of Nemours, seemed 
to offer a secure guarantee of victory. Events for 
a while justified his confidence. In February and April, 
1512, Gaston forced the combined papal and Spanish 
army to raise the siege of Bologna ; from thence marched 
upon Brescia, routed the Venetians; and on the 11th of 
April won a no less bloody than brilliant victory over 
Spain and the pope, in the neighbourhood of Ravenna. 
The day was dearly bought by the young hero with the 
sacrifice of his life and the flower of his army. With 
him expired the fortune of France in Italy. 

From the extremity of danger which again menaced 
the holy father, he saw himself unexpectedly saved by 
the aid of the confederacy. King Louis had attempted 
to renew his connection with the latter, and the itching 
felt by many a palm for the touch of French dollars 
augured a favourable issue to his overtures : but the 
high demands of the Swiss deterred the frugal mind of 
the monarch, and after the victory of Ravenna the 
French broke off all negotiations. This was highly ad^ 
vantageous to the cause of the pope. A Swiss embassy 

9 



1512. FRENCH EXPELLED FROM ITALY. 187 

negotiated with cardinal Schinner at Venice, while at 
Zurich the papal legate, Philomardo bishop of Veroli, 
distributed plenary absolutions, plentiful blessings, and 
some little of the gold which he had previously collected 
from the Swiss for the remission of their sins. The 
Swiss embassy at Venice was completely gained by the 
courtesies of the Venetians and the cunning of Schinner. 
On one occasion the cardinal surprised them with two 
sumptuous presents made them by the pope, consisting 
of a red silk hat with rich trimming, and decorated with 
gold and pearl embroidery representing the descent of 
the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove, and a golden 
sword in a sheath of gilded copper, of which the hilt 
was adorned in like manner with pearls. The value of 
these presents was enhanced by the cardinal's exposition 
of their mystic meaning, and of the privileges annexed 
to them by the hand of the holy father. The over- 
joyed ambassadors returned home; and though many 
places broke with France unwillingly, war was at length 
decided on by the diet. 

In May, 1512, a force of 20,000 confederates as- 
sembled at Coire, under the command of Ulrich von 
Hohen Sax, the experienced leader of Zurich. The 
Grisons, too, who considered their alliance with France 
as dissolved by acts of violence and injustice on her 
part, and their old league with the confederates as more 
binding, joined their party. Their combined forces 
marched on Verona, and the town was deserted by the 
French. On the 30th of May, they began their march 
from Verona, and effected a junction with the Venetians 
at Villafranca. From thence their march resembled 
an uninterrupted triumphal procession, and overflowed 
with plunder and pleasure. The already inadequate 
forces of the French, which besides were daily weak- 
ened by the emperor's recall of the Landsknechts, aban- 
doned even fortified towns without attempting serious 
resistance. On the approach of the confederates to 
Milan, the fathers of the Pisan church assembly, who 
had betaken themselves thither, and who had just de- 



188 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1512 

posed the pope from all his spiritual and secular dig- 
nities^ were the first to seek their safety in flight. A 
popular insurrection, marked by horrible atrocities, 
wrested this metropolis from the French. Important 
troubles also took place in Genoa and other towns. At 
Pavia the French army vainly attempted some defence. 
From thence it fled in disorder over the mountains. 
The king retained in the whole of Italy hardly any 
other place than the fortresses of Milan and Cremona. 
At the former place the confederates pulled down the 
splendid monument of the hero of Ravenna, and even 
dragged his corpse from the grave, that one who had 
been anathematised by the pope might not rest in con- 
secrated ground. 

After the expulsion of the French, disputes arose be- 
twixt the Swiss, the confederates, and the cardinal, with 
regard to the allotment of their conquests. The Vene- 
tians decamped in one night unexpectedly, and without 
£iiy previous notice. Disorders threatened to break out 
in the Swiss army ; and at length it was resolved to re- 
turn home, well paid and enriched as they were w T ith 
plunder. The pope rewarded the seasonable aid of the 
confederates, by bestowing on them the title of u De- 
fenders of the Freedom of the Christian Church," and 
solicited an embassy to be sent to Rome from the diet ; 
in order, as he pretended, that his trusty and beloved 
sons might take a part in all affairs of importance, but 
in truth that he might entrap them more completely by 
means of pensions, flatteries, and presents, and show the 
whole world how devoted to him was the valiant and 
formidable Helvetic body. 

Now came the important question, into whose hands 
the conquered duchy of Milan should be delivered. 
This query could not possibly be indifferent to any of 
the allied powers — least of all, perhaps, to the con- 
federates, whose trade must be in some degree dependent 
on the favour or disfavour of the ruler of Milan. The 
Milanese themselves wished for the son of their late 
ruler, the expelled Ludovico Moro. This choice pleased 



1512. 



MAXIMILIAN SFORZA. 



the pope, as coinciding with his plan for purging Italy 
entirely from foreigners. It also pleased the con- 
federates, who wished for a prince in Milan not power- 
ful enough to do without their friendship and alliance. 
The emperor and Spain, on the other hand, hoped to 
see the ducal crown on the head of a younger branch 
of the imperial family. At an assembly in Mantua, 
the pope and the confederates carried the day ; and it 
was resolved to invest with the dukedom Maximilian, 
the eldest son of Ludovico Moro. The confederates 
fixed their relations with the new ruler by formal 
deeds. 

Apparent quiet w r as now restored in Italy ; and it was 
thought that Louis, embarrassed as he was from all 
quarters, would be compelled to abandon hope of re- 
conquering Milan. But a new and fearful conflagration 
soon blazed up from the embers. The country wasted, 
impoverished, and depopulated by the consequences of 
war, depredations, and banishments, had expected of the 
new government cures for its many and deep wounds, 
The easy-natured prince gave ear to the wishes of his 
subjects, and formed the most benevolent intentions ; 
but his womanish weakness allowed him to put nothing in 
execution ; and what little good might have issued from 
his irresolute and powerless hands was intercepted by 
the rapacity of the imperial, papal, and Swiss embassies. 
Hence arose a wish for the return of the French, who 
had subjected the people to less grinding oppression. 
This change of sentiments did not escape the pene- 
tration of those who were its principal objects. They 
had still retained connections in the Milanese, and only 
watched a favourable moment to re-enter into possession 
of the land. That moment seemed to have come ; for 
they succeeded in opening negotiations with the Swiss, — 
and the king expected great effects from the tried power 
of his gold. But an offended people is not so easily re- 
conciled. Before the French embassy could even obtain 
its safe conduct, certain sums were to be paid, the 
castles of Lugano and Locarno evacuated, and solemn 



190 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1 513, 

engagements taken to make no secret levies. The con- 
ditions imposed by the Swiss during the course of 
negotiation, and especially the entire renunciation of 
Milan and Asti, appeared to the king so rigorous and 
unbearable, that the whole transaction failed, as neither 
promises nor even bribes could bend the determination 
of the confederates. Though there were many who 
preferred the French crowns and fat pensions to the 
consecrated banners, hats, and swords of the pope, his 
copious benedictions, and his frugal gifts ; yet ill will 
against France was so prevalent, and Schinner employed 
alternately words and gold with such dexterity, that the 
French embassy not only were very roughly treated, 
but, their intrigues having exposed them to suspicion, 
w r ere threatened with immediate dismissal. 

The death of Julius II. seemed to open better pros- 
pects for France ; which soon disappeared, when cardinal 
John of Medicis, who had just escaped from French 
captivity, succeeded to the papal chair by the name of 
Leo X. On the other hand, the king succeeded in 
forming a close alliance with the Venetians, who had 
felt themselves affronted by the allies. The disunion 
of the confederates, the defenceless state of the duchy, 
and the possession of the fortresses of Milan and Cre- 
mona, seemed to ensure success to any new attempt on 
the part of France. Sixteen thousand picked troops, 
with a band of traitorous Swiss, were collected under 
the most eminent French generals, and directed their 
march across the mountains towards Asti. Ten thou- 
sand Venetians, under command of count Alviano, 
moved on Verona, and captured several places. A re- 
volt in favour of France took place in Genoa. Duke 
Maximilian, on the other hand, with neither men nor 
money, was surrounded by a disaffected people, and was 
within the range of the French artillery, even in his 
own palace. His position was by no means enviable, 
though 4000 confederates had already joined him, and 
more numerous forces were expected. He found him- 
self betrayed by one of his generals ; his city of Milan 



1513. 



FRENCH DEFEATED AT NOVARA. 



191 



opened its gates to the French ; and the rest of the 
country soon followed the example set by the capital. 
Novara and Como only preserved their allegiance to the 
duke. Into the former of these towns Maximilian 
threw himself, with the Swiss in his pay, and a few 
hundred Lombard horsemen, and w r as soon blockaded 
there by the French army. He looked forward to a 
fate like that of his father, who, thirteen years before, 
in the same circumstances, had been betrayed by the same 
confederates in whose hands his destiny now lay. The 
hostile leaders confidently anticipated the same issue. 
But the fidelity of the Swiss for once deceived their 
expectations. In vain the French heaped promises upon 
promises ; the only reply w r as a sally from the gar- 
rison. In vain the French artillery battered down the 
fortifications ; the resolution of the Swdss was so far 
from wavering, that the gates of Novara were con- 
stantly kept open in defiance. On the second day, when 
the garrison was reduced to the last extremity, the 
enemy's discharges unexpectedly ceased. The French 
had raised the siege with precipitation, on intelligence 
of the approach of a Swiss army, which, however, was 
detained on its advance by many difficulties. At length 
the main body was collected at Arona, and waited there 
three days for the rest. On their non-arrival, it was 
finally resolved to advance and provoke an engagement. 
The French were not to be found before Novara, but 
had formed an encampment half a league from the town. 
Their great superiority, not only in number, but in ca- 
valry, artillery, and in the advantage of their position, 
might have dissuaded the confederates from attacking 
them until their whole number should have come up ; 
but they nevertheless resolved to engage. 

Before daybreak on the 13th of June, the Swiss 
army, QOQQ strong, made its onset. Each single dis- 
charge of the French artillery stretched on the ground 
fifty or sixty of the assailants, who pressed forward in 
close column. Nothings however, could stop them : and 
it soon came to a conflict between man and man, with 



292 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1513. 



knives and daggers. The French cavalry had long kept 
off attacks in flank, and even fallen on the rear of the 
confederates. Every thing yielded at length to the 
obstinate courage of the Swiss. In five hours they had 
gained a complete victory, and covered the field with 
8000 of the enemy ; but their triumph was bought 
with the blood of 1500 of their countrymen. The re- 
maining divisions came up on the same evening and the 
following morning. Plunder and forced contributions 
in Piedmont, Montferrat, and Saluzzo, indemnified the 
victors for outstanding arrears of pay. 

In order to give the people new occupation, and in 
compliance with the emperor's summons, the con- 
federates now undertook an expedition into France. 
Against that power, an alliance which had been formed 
between the emperor, pope Leo X., Ferdinand of Ar- 
ragcn, and England, and which called itself by the 
name of the Holy League, already had commenced open 
hostilities. Ostensibly, this league was only formed 
against the Turks ; but France was aimed at also by it, 
in a manner not to be mistaken. The act of adhesion, 
subscribed by the confederates and the duke of Milan, 
stated the holy league to have been closed against ty- 
rants, the Turks, and specially for the defence of the 
Italian nation. Its duration was fixed for the lifetime 
of the high contracting parties. 

The emperor sent artillery and cavalry under the 
command of duke Ulrich of Wiirtemburg, with whom 
several of the cantons were in alliance. The combined 
forces appeared before Dijon in September, 30,000 
strong instead of 1 6,000, the number which had been 
called out by the diet. The French general La Tremouille 
could hardly gather 6000 men round him, and panic 
unpeopled the open plains of France; but the Swiss force, 
although adequate to the greatest undertakings, was, at 
the moment, without guidance or order. So early as 
the 13th of September, a peace was effected in spite of 
the duke of Wiirtemhurg's remonstrances, through flat- 
teries, insinuations with regard to the views of the 



1515. 



FRANCIS I. 



193 



emperor, and the most seductive assurances of all kinds. 
The king was to concede whatever belonged to the pope, 
the duke of Milan, or the emperor, and give up the 
castles of Milan, Cremona, and Asti to the confederates. 
Four hundred thousand crowns should be paid to the 
latter ; half within eighteen days, the other moiety 
before the 11th of November. Conditions were also 
made in behalf of duke Ulrich and his followers. Four 
splendidly clothed hostages remained with them as secu- 
rities, and the army returned homewards as if beaten 
out of the field. 

It was soon perceived that the king had no intention 
of confirming this treaty. The only man of importance 
among the hostages escaped from an inn at Zurich, 
where he ought to have been carefully watched. The 
proposal made by several men of honour and courage, 
immediately to renew the invasion of France, was frus- 
trated by the party in the French interest, which now 
began to raise its head anew. The duke of Milan more 
and more betrayed his incapacity, and excited discontent 
among his protectors : nothing, however, at last remained 
for him but deference to their will, and avoidance of 
whatever might displease them. 

Through the pope, who was playing fast and loose 
with the confederates, king Louis now sought to renew 
his friendship with them ; but he did not succeed, as he 
would not renounce his pretensions upon Milan. On the 
other hand, though well aware of the faithlessness of 
Leo, they renewed with him the league which they had 
formed with his predecessor. 

On the death of Louis XI L, Francis I., his successor, 
proposed terms of alliance to his ei dear and honoured 
friends" the Swiss. The bearer of these was repri- 
manded for coming without having made previous ap- 
plication for safe-conduct ; and the only answer vouch- 
safed to him was, that peace had already been closed at 
Dijon. But the youthful monarch was not to be diverted 
from his purpose ; and the delegates of his uncle the 
duke of Savoy employed every possible means, at suc- 

0 



194 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1515. 



cessive diets, to gain the Swiss over to his interests with- 
out renunciation of Milan. All was in vain ; and the 
efforts made to turn their distrust towards other powers 
only confirmed its direction against France. The French 
had in the mean time occupied Genoa ; and pope Leo, 
in whose policy the interest of the house of Medicis took 
precedence of all other considerations, prevented the 
confederates from anticipating their movements. Maxi- 
milian Sforza, whom the great preparations of the new 
ruler of France had filled with anxiety, renewed his 
applications to the confederacy, who sent him 24,000 
regular troops in three divisions, who were followed by 
6000 volunteers. There was but little union or disci- 
pline in this army ; yet it obeyed the decree of the diet 
for occupation of the mountain passes, marched towards 
Piedmont under Prosper Colonna, an experienced Mi- 
lanese general, and took up a position between Susa and 
Saluzzo. Unexpectedly the French army appeared in 
the district of Coni, accompanied by an hitherto unpre- 
cedented force of 20,000 Landsknechts, and by the then 
notorious black band of Gueldres, and furnished with 
eighty pieces of artillery. Colonna was surprised at 
Villafranca by the French, before the bulk of the Swiss 
force could come up to his assistance : moreover the 
inaction of the emperor inspired distrust, and retreat 
was at length decided on. The men of Berne, Freiburg, 
and Soleure, marched homewards through Arona ; the 
troops of the other cantons, and the volunteers, towards 
Milan : the heavy artillery was carelessly left at Novara. 

The cantons, in the meanwhile, with the exception of 
Uri, Schwytz, and Glarus, were engaged in negotiation 
with French envoys; and though the proposals of the 
latter were less advantageous than might have been looked 
for from the duke of Savoy's assurances, yet terms of 
peace were finally agreed between the parties. Imme- 
diately on its conclusion, that division of the Swiss troops 
which had reached Arona, accompanied by the Valaisans, 
pursued its march homewards ; but the Bernese volun- 
teers, and the Argovian reinforcements, remained behind 



1515. 



BATTLE OF MARIGNANO. 



195 



with the rest of the Swiss army. They were now upon 
the point of disbanding, when, on Schinner's persuasion, 
the body-guard of the duke, and part of the Swiss troops, 
provoked an action with the French in the vicinity of 
Marignano. Schinner soon succeeded in moving the rest 
to support their countrymen ; and the French army 
double the Swiss in numbers, found itself unexpectedly 
attacked in its strong position, protected by sixty-four 
pieces of heavy artillery, a deep trench, hedges, and 
walled enclosures. Regardless of the fearful execution 
done by the cannon, the Swiss pressed forwards, and 
soon compelled the black band to retreat ; every thing 
gave way before them : the king fought in the murder- 
ous melee, surrounded by his nobles ; and nothing but 
darkness put an end to the struggle. The French leaders 
employed the night in recovering their order. Early on 
the 14th, the main body of Swiss renewed their onset, 
with Uri and Zurich at their head ; and the French at 
least sold their lives dear to their antagonists, who rushed 
upon them under the well-pointed fire of their guns. 
But the fortune of the day was reversed about noon by 
the Venetians, who fell upon the rear of the Swiss, al- 
ready exhausted by this battle of the giants (as it was 
called by the old general Trivulcio). Nevertheless the 
latter repulsed the first charge ; but the obstinacy of the 
new assailants at length decided the victory. The con- 
federates, compelled at length to yield to the unwonted 
necessity of retreat, retired slowly, carrying off as many 
as possible of their wounded, as well as the guns, stand- 
ards, and horses captured from the enemy. The Swiss 
had lost from six to seven thousand men, and neither 
prayers nor promises could keep them in Milan, whither 
they had betaken themselves at first: they hastened home- 
wards, without any great anxiety being exhibited by the 
enemy to pursue them. And thus ended the last expe- 
dition on Lombardy undertaken by the confederates in 
their own name and in that of their country. 

The king of France, astounded by a victory which 
rather wore the aspect of a defeat, closed the so called 

© 2 



196 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1515o 



perpetual peace with the confederacy in the following 
year ; a treaty which did justice to its title by a duration 
almost uninterrupted for three centuries, and formed the 
basis of all subsequent negotiations between the Swiss 
cantons and the kings of France. Francis was thus 
enabled to hire the aid of the confederates against the 
emperor, the pope, and the duke of Milan ; and then- 
soldiers bled in his service for some years without suc- 
cess or advantage to their country, unless we should ex- 
cept an invitation to Paris in the quality of godfathers 
to his new-born son. On this occasion every canton sent 
a delegate thither, each with a baptismal present of fifty 
ducats. A present on which Francis set a higher value 
was that of 16,000 Swiss soldiers, who were sent to aid 
his Italian expeditions : but when 3000 of these troops 
had fallen at Bicocca ; and when, out of 15,000 others 
who had marched into Lombardy, hardly 4000 ever re- 
turned, the taste for such expeditions became by de- 
grees less general in Switzerland. 



1519. RESULTS OP THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGNS. 197 



CHAP. XIII. 
iERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

1519—1531. 

GENERAL RESULTS OF THE ITALIAN EXPEDITIONS. CORRUPTIONS , 

OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CASE OF JETZER. LEO X. 

EXTENDS THE SALE OF INDULGENCES. — SENDS AN APOSTOLICAL 

COMMISSIONER INTO SWITZERLAND. ULRICH ZWINGLI 

APPOINTED PREACHER AT ZURICH. RESOLUTION AGAINST 

COURTISANS. FIRST DISPUTATION OF BADEN. COUNCIL OF 

ZURICH. ITS REFORMS OPPOSED BY THE OTHER CANTONS 

ANABAPTISTS AND OTHER SECTARIES. LEVIES OF TROOPS 

IN SWITZERLAND BY FRANCIS I. BATTLE OF PA VIA. CAP- 
TURE OF THE FRENCH KING OCCASIONS CONSTERNATION IN 

SWITZERLAND. SECOND DISPUTATION AT BADEN. — CAUSE 

OF REFORM ESPOUSED BY BERNE. THOMAS MURNER. ANA- 
BAPTIST EXCESSES. IMBITTERMENT OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES 

CHRISTIAN LEAGUE. — ATTACK ON CAPPEL. DEATH OF 

ZWINGLI. 

The Italian expeditions had for some time contributed 
to maintain the Swiss military character ; but by degrees 
it became evident, that the changes in the art of war 
attendant on the general use of fire-arms,, and on the de- 
cline of the heavy cavalry of the middle ages, had placed 
other nations in possession of an infantry not inferior to 
their own. The rays of power, refracted from two cen- 
turies of victory, could not linger very long after the loss 
of real pre-eminence. The latter campaigns in Italy had 
not tended to retrieve the consideration of foreigners, 
whose faith, if not in the courage, at least in the conduct 
of the dreaded mountaineers, was at length completely 
shaken. Through the effects of these campaigns, too, 
the character of the people had been rendered more 
intractable than ever j the bond of the confederacy had 
been still farther loosened; domestic virtue and useful 
activity banished, and the vital juices drained from the 

o 3 



198 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1500. 



nation by slaughter, or dried up by contagious disorders. 
All these too perceptible and prevalent evils must have 
tended, in no small degree, to prepare the minds of 
many for those new religious impulses which were soon 
to set the world in motion. 

Christianity had been more and more perverted, and 
employed for purposes foreign from its origin : this had 
been effected the more easily, as almost all knowledge 
was confined to the clergy ; while the ignorance and 
implicit faith of the people rendered it mere brute ma- 
terial in their hands. Though the princes of Europe, 
after a long ; struggle with the popes, had been able to 
maintain their most important prerogatives ; and though 
even the confederates had restrained within certain limits 
the manifest assumptions of the hierarchy, yet in spi- 
ritual concerns the civil governments of Europe had 
become mere subdivisions of the ecclesiastical empire. 

When the bishop of Rome had brought the people of 
Christendom so far as to revere in him a delegate of the 
Godhead, and had thereby become a legislator and judge 
in matters of faith, the original records of that faith of 
course sunk in importance. The popular religion came 
to consist in implicit adoption of whatever was prescribed 
by the priesthood ; and, above all, in superstitious ve- 
neration of its head. Arrayed in forms of constantly 
increasing outward splendour, it ceased to aim at an in- 
ward elevation of the soul, and became, with most, a mere 
amusement of fancy and of the senses. The appropriate 
destination of man to the active use of his mental and 
corporeal powers was forgotten ; while renunciations, 
pilgrimages, penances, donatives to consecrated places, 
observance of innumerable holidays, were held infallible 
methods of salvation. Prayers were addressed no longer 
to the Deity, but to the dead who had been raised by 
the pope to saintship ; and this veneration became by 
degrees a species of actual worship, which extended it- 
self to lifeless things, to images, and symbols. To these, 
and to the relics and the rags of the saints, to the sound 
of bells, to holy water, &c, miraculous and divine powers 



1506. 



MONKISH IMPOSTURES. 



199 



were attributed. When misfortune came upon either 
individuals or communities, it was sure to be ascribed 
to the neglect of some ecclesiastical precept or observ- 
ance ; and reconcilement with the Deity was to be sought 
by one or other of the above-mentioned appliances. 

Instruction, whether moral or religious, had become 
in a manner closed against the people : the use of the 
Bible was wholly withdrawn from laymen ; and the 
select few of the clerical order who did or could read it, 
used it only in the study of scholastic theology, and in 
the propping up of canonical and hierarchical preten- 
sions. Ignorance and dissoluteness prevailed among the 
/ower clergy : the higher, in particular the Italian, gave 
themselves up to every species of licentiousness j and 
their crimes went for the most part unpunished, as they 
nad managed to exempt themselves from the civil juris- 
dictions. Ever since the cessation of the schisms which 
had been caused by rival candidates to the papal chair, 
it was occupied, after brief lucid intervals, by men who 
gave themselves up to the most execrable vices, or who 
pursued the most perfidious policy. 

If the attempts of Arnold of Brescia, Huss, and 
others, and the measures of the councils held at Con- 
stance and Basle, had failed of their anticipated effect, 
they had, however, introduced a very general conviction 
of the necessity for some sweeping church reform. But 
this reform, instead of being sought by any rational 
means, was expected to proceed, as it were, spontaneously 
from the very men whose dignities, wealth, and influence 
depended on the corruption of religion. In the mean 
time, the invention of printing, the newly-revived 
acquaintance with the writers of antiquity, and the 
diffusion of a more profound study of the Scriptures, 
accelerated the coming of the mighty change. 

The indolence and vices of the clergy had occasioned 
discontent even in Switzerland, The rivalship of the 
several monastic orders, in their claims to saintship, mi- 
racles, and relics, was productive of innumerable decep- 
tions. Four Dominican monks were burnt at Berne in 

o 4 



200 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1506. 



1509, who, in order to maintain, in opposition to the 
Franciscans, the doctrine of their order on the immacu- 
late conception, had endeavoured to manufacture a new 
miracle by deluding a simple brother of the order. There 
is something horribly ludicrous, if the phrase may be 
permitted, in the details of this iniquitous transaction ; 
and as the whole affair is a tolerable sample of the means 
of moral influence used by the rival confraternities, the 
recital of it may not be entirely without interest. 

In a chapter of the order held at Wimpfen on the 
Neckar in 1506, it was resolved, after general condo- 
lences on the growing influence gained by the Francis- 
cans, and the poverty and contempt into which their 
own order was falling, to venture one bold stroke for 
winning back their hold on public opinion. After long 
deliberations on the place and mode of execution, the 
sub-prior Franz Uelschi offered his monastery at Berne 
as the theatre, and promised his best aid in getting up 
the intended drama. He described the population of 
that town as simple and valiant, and, therefore, easily 
moved to attest, by force of arms if necessary, the truth 
of any miracle worked in honour of their native place, 
The proposal was accepted with alacrity. On his return 
to Berne, Uelschi confided his purpose to the prior 
Johann Vater, friar Bolshorst, and the steward of the 
monastery, Steinegger, as well as to the other principal 
monks. He himself undertook the arrangement of the 
plot, and soon found a fit subject for deception in a 
simple-hearted tailor, Jetzer by name. The plotters 
reckoned securely on the credulity of this poor wretch, 
from the air of earnest devotedness with which he had 
sought admission as a lay-brother, offering them in re- 
turn for that privilege all that he possessed, which con- 
sisted in fifty- three florins and a few pieces of silk. They 
began their operations upon him as soon as he entered 
the cloister, first by nightly noises, then by visual appa- 
ritions of St. Barbara, and a soul out of purgatory. The 
superstitious fears of this poor fanatic were thus by 
degrees worked upon so effectually, that he threw him- 



1506. 



CASE OF JETZER. 



201 



self for spiritual assistance into the arms of Bolshors^ 
who had purposely been assigned as his father-confessor. 
The artful betrayer encouraged Jetzer's faith in the 
foregoing appearances, and in the promise of a visit 
from the Virgin, which it seems had been made him by 
St. Barbara. By these means he was easily persuaded 
to perform perpetual penitential exercises, and, in short, 
to act the part of a saint for the popular edification, 
whereby shoals of curious visitors were attracted to the 
Dominican convent. 

The eclipse of the Franciscans was, however, incom- 
plete, unless they could be deprived of the monopoly of 
the five prints of our Saviour's wounds, which had 
drawn the adoration of a barbarous age to the emaciated 
body of St. Francis. One step was made towards the 
attainment of this end by Bolshorst, who approached 
our unlucky tailor's bed in the character of the Virgin, 
and with lofty strains on the grace which was thus 
vouchsafed to him, drove a sharp nail through one of 
his victim's hands. The cry of pain put forth by the 
latter hindered his betrayers from finishing their work on 
that occasion ; but on the following night, after giving 
him a strong sleeping-draught, the requisite marks were 
produced by means of corrosives on four other parts of 
his person. When he awoke, the monks took advantage 
of his amazement to expatiate on the miracle which had 
taken place, and persuaded him to regard himself as a 
favourite of the Virgin, if not actually as the Saviour of 
mankind. They took him into a room hung with pic- 
tures of Christ's sufferings, which the deluded fanatic 
set himself to imitate in looks and gestures : he wrung 
his hands as if he were in the garden of Gethsemane ; 
he drooped his head as if it were encircled by the crown 
of thorns ; sometimes he fell into strong convulsions, 
aided by the potions administered, and sunk down as 
one struggling with the agonies of death. The people 
streamed in greater crowds than ever to the monastery, 
supped themselves full of horrors on the spectacle set 
before them, and listened with implicit faith to the 



202 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1506. 



"homilies of Bolshorst, who enlarged on the glory vouch- 
safed by these new miracles to the Dominican order, 
and on the evidence which they afforded of the errors of 
the Franciscans. It was now the turn of the latter to 
be neglected ; and respectable, even learned men, began 
to partake the reigning delusion. No question but that 
the crazy tailor of Berne would have maintained to this 
day a distinguished legendary station, had he been 
quietly withdrawn from the stage at the zenith of his 
glory. 

But the betrayers had successfully reached the sum- 
mit of effrontery only to surfer a more tremendous fall. 
Secure in the blind credulity of his victim, Bolshorst 
took less pains to disguise his voice on his next appear- 
ance in the character of the Virgin, and was recognised 
by Jetzer, who railed at him till he was forced to leave 
the apartment. It fared no better with the prior, who 
took his place the next night ; and the sub-prior was 
equally unsuccessful in supporting the part of St. Catha- 
rine of Siena. It was now resolved to still the rising sus- 
picions of the lay-brother, by acknowledging the latter 
deceptions ; but, on the other hand, to persist in the 
reality of the earlier visions, and persuade him to con- 
tinue his fanatical exhibitions. In this they succeeded 
with some trouble ; but growing fears of detection urged 
them to hasten the closing scenes of their drama. A 
report was put about by old women, that an image 
of the Virgin in the Dominican church had been seen to 
weep. A congregation of the curious was of course 
attracted, who saw the tears, and moreover saw Jetzer 
kneeling before the miraculous image in an attitude of 
palsied immobility. His four betrayers approached him 
with an air of utter unconsciousness, and asked him 
what was the reason of his presence there, and of those 
tears ; he affirmed that some invisible power had trans- 
ported him thither, and held him there until he should 
have disclosed all to the leading men of the canton. 
Upon this the monks had actually the audacity to solicit 
the attendance of the avoyer Erlach, and of several of 



1506. 



CASE OF JETZER. 



203 



the principal members of council. Jetzer declared in 
their presence that the mother of God wept because of 
the ruin of the town, which would assuredly be caused 
by the receiving of French pensions, and, above all, by 
farther tolerating the errors and false doctrines of the 
Franciscans. Amidst the general surprise at this an- 
nouncement, several clear-sighted men tacitly combined 
themselves to give the affair a thorough investigation. 

At the same time, a suspicion awoke in Jetzer's mind 
that his holy brothers meant to make away with him : 
indeed they made no farther secret of this, on his refusal 
to partake suspicious viands, after he had detected them, 
on more than one occasion, engaged in preparing their 
mummeries, or in enjoying their nocturnal orgies. They 
forced him to swallow a poisoned wafer, the fatal effect 
of which was, however, withstood by the strength of his 
constitution. They next tortured their victim into a 
solemn promise of silence ; but he soon afterwards seized 
an opportunity to escape, and reported in the town the 
Horrible tricks which had been played on him. The 
Dominicans, backed by a powerful party, still dared to 
deny the charge, and even despatched messengers to 
Rome, whence they hoped to procure a sentence in their 
favour. But it soon appeared that the council of Berne 
had sent a similar message to the bishop of Lausanne 
and the pope; in consequence of which Julius despatched 
his legate, Achilles de Grassis, who, with the bishops of 
Lausanne and Sion, and in the presence of several 
members of council, commenced the investigation at 
Berne, according to the usual mode of procedure at that 
time in criminal cases. Poor Jetzer, who might have 
been thought to have already suffered enough, was once 
more put to the torture, but stoutly persisted in his former 
story. The confessions of the monks, which were of an 
equally dark and revolting nature, were likewise sent to 
Rome, after the council of Berne, with some trouble, 
had obtained communication of them to eight of its own 
members. The only reasons given for the sentence, 
which was published were, that the criminals had denied 



204 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1509. 

the Godhead, coloured the sacramental wafers, and painted 
false tears upon an image of the Virgin ; and, moreover, 
had mocked the sufferings of the Saviour, by the five 
prints of wounds which they had made on the person of 
Jetzer. The four monks were publicly divested of their 
priestly functions, and delivered up to the secular power 
for execution by fire, which accordingly took place, in the 
presence of many thousand spectators ; but in so clumsy a 
style, that the popular abhorrence of the criminals was 
forgotten in the feeling excited against the executioner. 
Jetzer, who had still been retained in custody, contrived 
to make his escape by the aid and connivance of com- 
passionate souls, but was again arrested, several years 
afterwards, and made some farther disclosures supple- 
mentary to his former ones, which threw additional light 
on the aim and plan of the conspiracy. Innumerable 
versions of the whole disgusting history were spread 
in several languages through all Europe, and deeply 
wounded the credit of the Dominican order, while it 
infinitely scandalised all simple believers. Meanwhile, 
philosophical minds found pregnant matter of inference 
from this case to a hundred others similar ; and it gave 
no inconsiderable impulse to the first steps of the infant 
reformation. Besides which, the faith of the Swiss in 
papal infallibility had been much undermined in the 
course of the Italian expeditions, and the metropolis of 
the Christian world became the butt of jests and proverbs. 
The inconsiderate rapacity of the papal court at this time 
conduced to plunge it in still deeper discredit. 

Pope Leo X., whose love of splendour and warlike 
undertakings kept him constantly in need of large re- 
venues, extended the sale of indulgences beyond all former 
limits, and sent an Italian monk, Bernard Sampson by 
name, laden with them, as apostolic commissioner into 
Switzerland. This man offered his wares to the poor at 
the rate of a few pence, and drew from the rich whatever 
they chose to bestow. Tariffs of the rates of absolution 
were established, and married women encouraged to buy 
against the will of their husbands. 



1519* 



SALE OF INDULGENCES. 



205 



When Bernard Sampson made his appearance in 
Schwytz,his first opponent wasUirich Zwingli, the parish 
priest of Einsiedlen. This extraordinary man was born 
at Wildhausen, in Toggenburg, a. d. 1484 : he was 
distinguished even in boyhood by his ardour for know* 
ledge, and studied at Berne, Basle, and Vienna. Being 
appointed to a curacy in Glarus, he attended its banner, 
according to the custom of those times, in the battles of 
Novara and Marignano. Here he learned to know, by daily 
examples, the causes and effects of dissolute morals, of 
pensions, foreign enlistments, and the prevailing neglect 
of religion. While thousands around him were not in 
the smallest degree sensible of the prevalence and ex- 
tent of corruption, Zwingli implored remedial measures 
at the hands of bishops and prelates, when hardly past 
the period of extreme youth. 

The trader in indulgences proceeded to Berne, which 
was then the seat of wealth and ' superstition. At the 
price of a stallion Jacob von Stein purchased absolution 
for himself, his soldiers, his ancestors, and his vassals, 
at Belp. The bishop of Constance openly declared against 
this traffic ; and the dean of Bremgarten, Bullinger, dis- 
tinguished himself so much in opposition to the seller of 
indulgences, that the latter launched the ban of the 
church against him, from which he could be released by 
nothing short of 300 ducats. 

In Zurich, where corruption of morals had spread 
itself as widely as in any town of Switzerland, fomented 
as it was by the presence of foreign ambassadors, and 
by the frequent holding of diets, Sampson had hoped to 
make a lucrative haul, the rather as a diet was sitting on 
account of transactions with Wurtemhurg. But at the 
same epoch Zwingli was placed as preacher in the ca- 
thedral ; and his exhortations soon had powerful effect, as 
they were backed by influential and respectable persons. 
The trader in indulgences was compelled to evacuate 
Zurich; and received emphatic hints from many members 
of the diet, that he had better not pursue his mission in 
Switzerland. Zwingli preached to crowded congregations 



Wo 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1519- 



against the prevailing corruption of morals, foreign en- 
listments,, and foreign luxuries. A general anxiety was 
excited by his sermons for acquaintance with the biblical 
writings; and, in the following year, the government 
promulgated an ordinance that preachers should be guided 
by the word of God exclusively. From the presses of 
Amerbach, Froben, and Petri, at Basle, Bibles, classical 
writings, and, at last, those of Luther and Erasmus, 
were disseminated. The latter author, who visited the 
Basle university in 1519^ contended with success against 
superstition, so long as the expression of his clear views 
remained unchecked by the apprehension of hurting 
himself with powerful persons and parties, and turned 
monastic abuses into ridicule by his satirical powers, 
while his Latin version, with notes, of the New Tes- 
tament, awakened a disposition for the well-grounded 
study of Scripture. When, at a diet in Baden, in 1520, 
the legate Pucci demanded the destruction of all Lutheran 
writings, his proposal was by no means met with alacrity; 
and, in the same year, the confederates unanimously re- 
solved that all courtisans* who were not deterred by 
the notice thus afforded them, should be put in sacks and 
drowned. 

Had Zwingli and his fellow-labourers only sought to 
effect an ecclesiastical reform, they would have gained 
their end more easily than by extending their aim to a 
moral one, as they felt themselves bound to do. Their 
attacks on foreign services and pensions made them 
enemies among numerous and influential classes. With 
these open or secret opponents in the laity were united 
monks and other clerical personages — some from con- 
viction, others from apprehension of the effects which 
any radical change must have on their own interests. 

* Courtisanerie was the name applied to one of the most impudent abuses 
of the catholic church. Italian priests, and other vagabonds, made their 
appearance in Switzerland, furnished with papal titles of succession to such 
benefices, (named or unnamed) as should be vacant. Curacies, deaneries, and 
prebends were invaded by the holders of these scandalous documents; and 
not only were well-deserving candidates excluded by them from offices 
which they had earned by the labour of years, but it often happened that 
more than one of these letters patent were given for a single place or 
benefice, whereby disorders, quarrels, and even bloodshed were occasioned. 



1523. REFORMATION COMMENCED AT ZURICH. 207 

So long as the new doctrines worked no visible al- 
teration in the outward form and features of the eccle- 
siastical polity, the court of Rome and its legates paid 
but slight attention to them ; the more so, as the exhort- 
ations of Zwingli against French influence seconded 
the secret political views of Leo X. But when during 
Lent, in 1522, many neglected the ordinance for fasting, 
without having purchased dispensations for the use of 
forbiclden food, the bishop of Constance issued a man- 
date against all innovations, and despatched to the council 
of Zurich a missive directed to the same purpose. 

Zwingli and the majority of his followers had hitherto, 
for the most part, abstained from attacks on the outward 
forms of the church ; but the resistance which was now 
rising forced them to a more complete development of 
their system. Zwingli now inculcated the avoidance of 
all merely external observances in the service of the 
Deity. He diffused his doctrines in small pamphlets or 
treatises, which, like those of Luther, were eagerly read. 
He now demanded a public investigation of the charges 
brought against him by his accusers. Accordingly a 
disputation was fixed to be held on the 29th of January, 
1523, at Zurich, to which the delegates of the cantons 
assembled at Baden were invited. All the preachers of 
Zurich, with many foreign prelates and men of learning, 
assisted at this disputation in the presence of the great 
council. The episcopal vicar, John Faber, endeavoured 
in vain to postpone investigation, and to defer it to a 
general council. Zwingli was not confuted by his op- 
ponents ; and the great council encouraged him by an 
ordinance to persevere in preaching the word of God ; 
and enjoined on the other preachers to advance nothing 
which they were not prepared to make good from the 
same source. A second disputation was held in the 
autumn of the same year, at which a decision was first 
pronounced against images and image- worship, and next 
for abolition of the mass. These decisions were commu- 
nicated to the Basle university, the bishops of Constance, 
Basle, Coire, and the twelve cantons, accompanied with 



208 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1524. 



a challenge to produce their objections. In the following 
spring the delegates of the confederacy appeared before 
the great council of Zurich, admonished it to desist from 
all innovations, threatened the exclusion of Zurich from 
the diets of the confederacy, promised that rigorous mea- 
sures should be taken against courtisans, and for the 
removal of all clerical abuses. The sentiments of the 
delegates were, however, far from unanimous; and 
SchafF hausen showed some disposition' to approximate 
to the system of Zurich. 

The great council of Zurich, which in a manner had 
assumed to itself the conduct of the affairs of the reform- 
ation, replied, that it would accept correction only from 
the word of God ; and proceeded in its career of inno- 
vation. Processions, pilgrimages, and images were done 
away with, — relics, amongst which were discovered several 
gross deceptions,were buried, — the sacrament was restored 
to its original institution, and communicated in both 
kinds to the laity. The inmates of the monasteries 
received permission to leave them, and the monasteries 
themselves were turned into alms-houses, schools, and 
hospitals, while a great part of their revenues was applied 
to the support of preachers, charities, and gymnasia. 
In a short time all the ceremonies and services of the 
Romish church were abolished, without the slightest 
disorder, throughout the whole canton. Many members 
of the clerical order married ; but so great is the force 
of ideas in which men have been brought up, that many 
of the bigoted adherents to the old system, who had 
connived at, or excused as unavoidable, the practice of 
concubinage by the catholic clergy, were the loudest in 
condemning the marriage of clergymen as a crime. 
Thomas Wyttenbach, and others of that order, who had 
entered into the holy state of matrimony, were fairly 
compelled to renounce their clerical functions altogether. 

Though most of the Swiss governments and dignified 
clergy opposed themselves to the doctrines of the reform- 
ation, these doctrines spread in every quarter where en- 
trance was not closed upon them. According as the 



ANABAPTISTS. 



209 



friends of one or the other creed in a canton gained 
preponderating influence in the council, reform either 
made rapid progress or suffered retardations. At Schafr- 
hausen, St. Gall, Miihlhausen, Basle, in the Grisons, 
and the Thurgau, it received alternate checks and en- 
couragements. Constance decreed that teaching should be 
regulated according to the word of God only. Several com- 
munes in Appenzell abolished the mass, retaining, how- 
ever, the images over the altar. Berne, which; in 1523, 
had allowed some nuns at Konigsfelden to leave the 
cloister and marry, in 1524, displaced preachers who did 
likewise, and adhered in most of its measures to the ma- 
jority of the cantons. 

As Christianity, in its very cradle, afforded occasion 
to schisms and false doctrines, even so the reformation 
soon developed infinite varieties of principle. Long 
before Luther and Zwingli had. come forward, many 
elements of disorder were fermenting in the bosom of 
the German population ; and now those whose enthu- 
siastic wishes were unsatisfied with the doctrines of the 
moderate reformers were joined by men whose ambition 
was more worldly, and the existing discontents secured 
them numerous auxiliaries. Confounding the condition 
of the first Christian societies with that of modern em- 
pires and communities, they sought to level all the 
existing forms of ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction. 
Some refused the payment of tithes, others complained 
of feudal burdens and services ; many denied the use- 
fulness of a spiritual order, and others the necessity for 
authority of any kind, except of such as suited with the 
reign of the saints. As many of them only allowed the 
baptism of adults, and consequently bestowed the rite a 
second time on their followers, they acquired the name 
of wiedertdiifer (anabaptists). In many places they not 
only withdrew themselves from divine service, and taught 
their doctrines in forests and retired places, but threw 
off all allegiance to the temporal government : Zurich, 
Soleure, Appenzell, the district of St. Gall, and the 



210 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1524 



bishopric of Basle, were especially infested by them. 
Without reflecting that no new idea ever warms the 
human heart without exciting human passions, timid 
people joined chorus with the enemies of the reformation 
in attributing entirely to its principles the fever in the 
brain of a set of enthusiasts. 

Another occurrence, which stood in no connection 
with these movements, did nevertheless contribute not a 
little to give rise to apprehensions of a similar kind. The 
Swiss land-vogt, Amberg, in the Thurgau, carried off in 
the night a protestant preacher of Burg, near Stein. This 
occasioned a tumult among the populace, who attempted 
to free their pastor ; and failing in the attempt, plun- 
dered and burned the monastery of Ittingen. Spectacles 
like these alarmed the governments, as well as many 
powerful individuals. The subtle and accomplished 
Faber, episcopal vicar at Constance, exerted himself to 
increase their apprehensions ; and many former friends 
of reform in Berne and other places had now become its 
declared and open enemies. 

Although at Zurich the authorities, as well as the 
reformers, did their utmost to avoid the imputation of 
scandalous or violent measures, yet they could not 
always succeed in checking the zeal of individuals. Not 
only were reciprocal provocations exchanged betwixt 
their own and the neighbouring cantons, but in Zurich 
itself some of the clergy denounced with more than cle- 
rical zeal ideas to which they had not been accustomed. 
A shoemaker, Nicholas Hottinger, and others had over- 
thrown a crucifix even before the disputation, and the 
subsequent prohibition of idolatry. After an imprison- 
ment of several months, Hottinger was banished for two 
years ; but being afterwards arrested for indiscreet ex- 
pressions at Klingnau, he was carried to Lucerne, and 
there illegally condemned to death. Thither, too, a 
preacher of the name of Oechsli was carried, put to the 
rack, but at length restored to liberty. Frequent diets 
were held, at which the necessity was acknowledged of 
leading Zurich back from her errors into the bosom of the 



1524. 



LEVIES OF FRANCIS I. 



211 



catholic churchy and of arresting the march of heresy in 
the undecided cantons. 

While the leaders of the government of Berne con- 
curred with the other cantons in maintaining the old 
system, the new doctrines still continued to gain a firmer 
footing. In the Grisons, the loose and scandalous de- 
portment of bishop Ziegler occasioned much agitation 
among the people. In consequence, without any secession 
from the Romish see, regulations of church discipline 
were made, which show how much may be done by a 
catholic government even in spiritual matters. 

During these proceedings, foreign influences had been 
active in most parts of the confederacy. Many warlike 
spirits had already forgotten the lessons of the last cam- 
paign in Italy : 6000 Swiss, and 4000 men from the 
Grisons and the Valais, joined the French army, which, 
in the autumn of 1523, marched under Bonnivet 
through Piedmont into Italy. It was only because the 
French general did not take advantage of the circum- 
stances that Milan failed to be captured by his army. 
His slighted fortune soon changed for the worse. The 
Swiss were so embittered by the loss of several hundred 
men, surprised and cut to pieces by the enemy, that for 
some time they spared none of the prisoners, even when 
the French brought them in. 6000 troops from the Gri- 
sons were compelled to retreat by tH skilful movements 
of their antagonist, John of Medicis, and a new Swiss 
reinforcement of 6000 or 8000 men, after affording many 
proofs of valour, only served to facilitate the retreat of 
the French out of Upper Italy. The confederates them- 
selves had been obliged to advance pay for their troops, 
and not much more than the third part of those who had 
marched ever returned ; and these returned, stripped of 
every thing over the Great St. Bernard. 

Francis I. now put forth his whole strength and re- 
sources. Fear of the increasing power of the emperor^ 
Charles V., had engaged pope Clement VII. on the side 
of the French ; and, in order to win the support of the 
confederacy, the new allies agreed that the duchy of 

p 2 



212 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1525, 



Milan, when it was conquered, should belong to the 
third son of the king, whom they had carried to the 
baptismal font. The king weakened his army by 
marching one division against Naples, and by the harass- 
ing siege of Pavia, undertaken during the winter. He 
found himself unexpectedly attacked, on the 6th oi 
February, by the most experienced generals of the em- 
peror; whose army had gained strength, in the same 
proportion as that of Francis had lost in number and in 
confidence. He received an utter defeat, and was made 
prisoner, notwithstanding all the exertions of his per- 
sonal intrepidity. The leader of the Swiss, John of Dies- 
bach, threw himself into the thickest of the battle, in 
order to escape surviving dishonour ; and, with few ex- 
ceptions, the other leaders fell in a similar manner. 
The fugitives returned home by the way of Como, 
almost in rags ; and the general consternation caused by 
their tidings was equal to that occasioned by the disas- 
trous day of Bicocca. The lessons of experience, how- 
ever, did not suffice to hinder about 8000 Swiss recruits 
from joining Francis again on his return from Spanish 
captivity. 

Even the friends of the old system in Switzerland 
were, at length, compelled to propose a disputation ; but, 
mindful of the consequences of those which had been 
held at Zurich, they chose a theatre fitter for their pur- 
pose, and adopted regulations, by which they hoped to 
secure the victory. Berne's proposal of meeting at 
Basle was negatived by the magistrates of that town 
themselves : Baden was preferred as a place standing 
under the safeguard of the eight orthodox cantons. The 
disputation was fixed for the l6th of May, 1526; and 
the bishops of Basle, Constance, Coire, and Lausanne, 
were invited to assist at the meeting. Zurich was coldly 
and formally admitted to send delegates ; but Zwingli 
received timely warnings not to make his appearance. 
Besides the delegates of the cantons, many lay and clerical 
personages of note attended the sittings. Dr. Eck of 
Ingolstadt, and the celebrated (Ecolampadius, were the 



1528. 



REFORM AT BERNE. 



213 



most distinguished champions of the opposite parties. 
The catholic majority of the meeting, without publish- 
ing any report of their proceedings, declared themselves 
to have triumphed in the controversy, and prohibited 
the works of Luther and Zwingli. But Berne, Basle, 
and Schaffhausen, issued a counter-declaration, that they 
would consider nothing as proved, until they had minutes 
of the evidence. Glarus and Appenzell also refused 
acquiescence. 

The cause of reform was now espoused by Berne : it 
was announced to the four bishops in that canton, that 
their authority was no longer to be recognised, and the 
same arrangements were made about church property as 
at Zurich. Notwithstanding the opposition of many 
members of the government, a solemn engagement was 
entered into against foreign pensions and alliances, and 
the league with France was limited to the observance of 
the perpetual peace. Great was the effect of so complete 
a revolution, in the councils of this most important 
member of the Helvetic body. 

Thomas Murner, a friar of Lucerne, and one of the 
most vehement opponents of the reformation, wrote, in 
the most offensive manner, against Berne and its mea- 
sures. The anabaptists had found numerous adherents 
in that canton, and excited some disturbance in the 
district of Schenkenberg ; commotions also took place 
in the vicinity of Interlachen, where the peasantry re- 
garded the suppression of the monasteries as including 
the cessation of all payment of dues and offerings. 
These disorders were soon composed by the aid of the 
men of Thun ; and Berne discovered her strength in the 
adherence of her faithful people. New disturbances 
next broke out in the Oberland, where the men of Hasli 
carried the restoration of the mass by a majority of forty 
voices. Uri and Unterwalden sent thither a party of 
priests to foment disaffection, and the repeated admoni- 
tions of the government were fruitless. The revolt soon 
extended over the Grindelwald, and as far as Untersee ; 
and many districts refused to contribute their aid 

p 3 



214 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1529. 



against the insurgents. Moreover, 800 Unterwaldners 
marched over the Briinig, and, in conjunction with the 
men of Hasli, took possession of Untersee. The wise 
and prudent policy of Berne was now rewarded by the 
devotedness of by far the greater number of her subjects. 
The Unterwaldners hastily retreated, and a general sub- 
mission took place, without shedding of blood. 

The national sympathies, momentarily revived by the 
disaster of Pavia, soon expired in the bitterness of con- 
troversy. Men who had been taught from their youth 
upwards, that beyond the pale of the church there was 
no salvation, — that all dissenters ought to be forced back 
into the orthodox creed, and that no engagement with 
heretics was binding, — were capable of the most atro- 
cious outrages, when personal passions added their 
venom to that of religious hatred. A priest of Zug 
suffered severe punishment for having eaten in com- 
pany with Zwingli at Zurich. Two men of the March 
were burnt in Schwytz. Such occurrences sufficiently 
showed the reformers in what light they were looked 
upon by the opposite party, and forced them on the 
most decisive measures in self-defence. Nor did they 
abstain from sanguinary reprisals : Marcus Wehrli of 
Frauenfeld, a zealous foe of the new doctrines, was ar- 
rested in his passage through Zurich, in company with 
the land-vogt of Unterwalden, and beheaded on the 
charge of persecutions and false accusations of heresy. 

About this time Zug and Lucerne stamped a small 
cross on the new coinage of Zurich, to signify that 
church plate had entered into its composition. Five 
cantons required the people of Bremgarten to deliver up 
their new books and Bibles, a demand to which Zurich 
and Berne alone openly opposed themselves. These two 
cantons now set on foot a so-called Christian league, to 
which they declared themselves compelled by the at- 
tempts of eight of their colleagues to suppress the re- 
formation among their subjects. Into this alliance all 
confederates espousing the reformed creed were admis- 
sible; and so sacred was the bond of the empire still 



1531. 



DEATH OF ZWINGLI. 



215 



esteemed in Switzerland, that its rights were made points 
of express reservation, as were those of the confederacy 
itself. 

The opposite persuasions were first brought into 
hostile collision by an attack made by the Catholics on 
Cappel, where the defeat of Zurich was aggravated by 
the death of Ulrich Zwingli. The enemy found him 
lying on his back severely wounded ; and, not knowing 
his person, asked if they should bring him a confessor. 
This being declined, by a faint motion of his head, they 
exhorted him to call on the holy Virgin and the saints. 
Rejecting this suggestion in a similar manner, he was 
saluted by the enraged foe with the names of dog and 
heretic, and despatched by the sword of a citizen of 
Unterwalden. - Thus," says Bullinger with touching 
simplicity, u thus was master Ulrich Zwingli slain in 
the midst of his own flock, with whom he remained 
even unto death." The body was not recognised till the 
day after the battle, when the fury of the enemy dis- 
played itself by dishonouring it. In vain their leaders 
enjoined moderation and reverence of the dead. The 
multitude determined that the body should be quartered 
and burned by the public executioner of Lucerne. 
Even the ashes were purposely mixed with impurities, 
lest his friends should enjoy the last mournful solace of 
collecting them. 



216 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



B. C. 57. 



CHAP. XIV. 

FROM THE ALLIANCE OF BERNE AND FREYBURG WITH 
GENEVA TO THE BORROMEAN LEAGUE. 

1526—1586. 

TOWN OF GENEVA. ITS EARLY HISTORY. OPPRESSED BY THE 

DUKE OF SAVOY. MAMELUKES. CRUELTIES EXERCISED OX 

THE BURGHERS WHO COURT THE ALLIANCE OF FREYBURG. 

DUKE CHARLES ENTERS THE TOWN. EXECUTION OF BER- 

THELIER. ALLIANCE OF BERNE AND FREYBURG WITH GE- 
NEVA. IMPOTENT RESENTMENT OF THE DUKE. SPOON 

LEAGUE. TREATY OF ST. JULIAN. ZEAL OF FAREL AND 

OTHERS. ABOLITION OF CATHOLICISM. EQUIVOCAL DE- 
PORTMENT OF DUKE CHARLES. CONQUEST OF THE VAUD BY 

BERNE. CO-BURGHERSHIP BETWIXT BERNE AND GENEVA. 

CALVIN. SERVETUS. EFFECTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

COUNCIL OF TRENT. BORROMEAN LEAGUE. CALENDAR 

CONTROVERSY. ■ — ESCALADE OF GEKEVA. 

The original foundation of Geneva is buried in obscure 
antiquity. It was already a considerable town under 
the Romans, in the age of Caesar and Diviko. Under 
Charlemagne and the Burgundian kings it was possessed 
of many important franchises, through which it raised 
itself gradually to almost complete independence. Situ- 
ated on the banks of the Leman lake, at its southern 
extremity, surrounded by extensive suburbs and highly 
productive vineyards, the seat of a bishopric, the central 
point of the trade of France, Germany, and Italy, pro- 
prietress of a great fair, and acknowledging no lord 
paramount but the emperor, Geneva grew in prosperity 
through the industry, the enterprising and independent 
spirit of its burghers. Their rights were, however, con- 
stantly in danger from the counts de Genevois, who 
derived their title from the name of the town, and the 
bishops of Geneva, whose episcopal seat vras within its 
walls, The preservation of the town was not less owing 
to the quarrels of the counts and the bishops than to 



1519- 



DUKES OF SAVOY. 



217 



the native love of freedom in its burghers. At a later 
period the favour of the German emperors conferred the 
principality of Geneva on the bishops, and the power of 
the counts fell into decay. On the other hand, the 
ducal house of Savoy aimed, during the thirteenth cen- 
tury, at sovereignty in Geneva. The burghers them- 
selves had called in its assistance against the counts; but 
when their new allies grasped at all the prerogatives of 
their former masters, established themselves in the forts 
of the town, and encroached on all its liberties, they 
learned to lament their folly in expelling a weaker 
enemy by the aid of a too powerful protector. Even the 
ambitious plans of Savoy were long frustrated by the 
energetic stand made by the bishops combined with the 
burghers, until towards the close of the fifteenth and the 
commencement of the sixteenth century, when an almost 
uninterrupted line of princes of the house of Savoy as- 
cended the episcopal chair of Geneva. The last of them, 
a contemptible weakling, abdicated in favour of duke 
Charles III. all the secular rights which he supposed 
himself to possess in the town. This illegal abdication 
caused considerable disturbances. The burghers almost 
unanimously refused to accept the yoke of Savoy, and the 
few who seemed inclined in its favour were stigmatised 
with the name of Mamelukes. The duke now had re- 
course to open violence to complete an undertaking which 
he had begun in contempt of justice. Burghers of 
Geneva were imprisoned in the Savoyard territory, con- 
fessions of a conspiracy extorted from them by means 
of torture, and employed as a pretext for their judicial 
murder. These proceedings struck the Genevans with 
terror. Many, dreading a similar destiny, banished them- 
selves from their country. Many turned an eye of hope 
on the neighbouring Swiss confederacy. Philip Ber- 
thelier, a Genevese exile, gained over the government of 
Freyburg to the cause of his fellow-countrymen; and in 
the year 1519 foe municipality of Geneva resolved to 
form an. alliance with that town. On this the duke took 
up arms, as remonstrances were in vain with the Swiss, 



218 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 



1519. 



and unexpectedly appeared with his army before the 
gates of Geneva. The inexperience, indecision, and 
disunion of the burghers worked in his favour not less 
than the discipline of his own troops. He entered the 
town, disarmed the burghers ; and Geneva would have 
undergone the extremities prepared for conquered rebels, 
had not some moderation been forced on the duke by his 
fear of the Swiss. Freyburg summoned the aid of the 
confederacy, and the summons was answered from all 
sides with alacrity. i( Every one," says an old writer, 
" who had any thing like heart in his breast, was re- 
solved to aid in the rescue of Geneva, and in punishing 
the duke's usurpations." Six thousand Swiss entered 
the Savoyard territory, and threatened an unsparing 
retaliation for^ every act of violence which should be 
ventured at Geneva. The duke had prudence enough to 
conceal his resentment, and to pay the war expenses of 
the Freyburgers. Geneva thus remained in his hands ; 
a general amnesty was promised; notwithstanding which 
Eerthelier's head fell on the scaffold, and the town was 
obliged to give up its league with Freyburg. The latter 
was persuaded with great difficulty, by the rest of the 
Helvetic body, to accept the terms of this treaty. 

Duke Charles now rioted without restraint in the en- 
joyment of his newly regained dominion. Wherever 
his will met with opposition, it was summarily sup- 
pressed by the sword. All independence of spirit 
seemed for ever crushed in Geneva. But when the 
duke mixed in the grand contest for Milan, the town 
employed the occasion to renew its struggle for freedom. 
On this the duke passed sentence of death on the heads 
of the popular party, who fled to Freyburg, and be- 
sieged the Helvetic body with their complaints. Frey- 
burg again declared herself, with Berne's concurrence, 
for the cause of Geneva. The duke hastened thither in 
alarm, released the prisoners, and procured a declaration 
of his sovereignty from an assembly of the burghers, 
surrounded by his body-guard. Thereupon he left the 
town, imagining that he had placed his dominion over 



1526. 



BERNE AND FREYBURG. 



.21.9 



it on a new and permanent basis. Formidable discon- 
tents broke out on his departure. The council declared 
those who had been banished iC friends of their country." 
The citizens called loudly for a league with Berne and 
Freyburg. Every street re-echoed the cry of C£ Long 
live the confederates!" The highest municipal func- 
tions were conferred on a friend of Switzerland. The 
exiles returned home; and brought along with them a 
project of co-burgher ship with Berne and Freyburg, 
The whole town, excepting six individuals, joined in the 
shouts of congratulation with which the proposal was 
received. Even the bishop Peter de la Beaume, a par- 
tisan of Savoy, but rather a weak than an ill-intentioned 
man, declared that he would oppose no impediment to 
the measure. On the 12th of May, 1526., a league was 
sworn between Berne and Geneva, for reciprocal aid, 
freedom of trade and intercourse, defence and protection 
of liberty and property. The allied towns answered 
the duke's remonstrances with the threat that they would 
secede from the alliance between Savoy and the Helvetic 
body. He was kept quiet besides by the apprehension 
of losing the Pays de Vaud, which lay so well within 
the reach of the Swiss, and which had been twice be- 
fore conquered by them already. 

The Genevans now laboured to consolidate their free- 
dom, to appropriate the rights of the duke to themselves, 
and to remodel the whole frame of their constitution. 
The adherents of Savoy were driven out of the town, 
their goods confiscated, and forty-four of them sentenced 
to death in case of return. The bishop was still tole- 
rated, as long as he continued undecided, and appeared 
to incline in favour of the town. When he afterwards 
betrayed his leaning to Savoy, his authority, too, was 
speedily at an end. These events were viewed by the 
duke with powerless indignation ; and the only signs of 
hostility which he ventured in return were the closing of 
all trade with the town, the reception of the exiles, and 
the capture and imprisonment of prior Bonnivarcl, a 
courageous and enlightened friend of freedom. Fear 



220 



HISTOHY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1526. 



of the confederates deterred him from stronger mea- 
sures. In the mean time a new enemy appeared against 
the town, in the shape of a league of the Savoyard no- 
bility. Some of them, carousing in a castle of the 
Vaud, had boasted that they would sup the Genevans 
up like spocn-meat. This sally suggested the formation 
of a fraternity which took the name of the spoon league, 
and the members of which mounted a spoon as their 
badge in front of their hats. This league might pro- 
bably meet with secret encouragement from the duke, 
but he dared not openly sanction, and had neither the 
power nor the will to prevent it. Shortly afterwards, 
when the head of this association was slain by the ex- 
asperated burghers of- Geneva, a struggle arose of a very 
harassing nature for the town. On this the allies of 
Geneva took the field with 10,000 men. The members 
of the spoon league were no match for such a force : 
their castles were burned, their soldiers scattered, and 
nothing remained for themselves but submission. 

Through Swiss mediation an armistice was concluded 
at St. Julian. Reciprocal guarantees of trade and inter- 
course were agreed upon. The duke guaranteed peace 
on the part of his subjects, — Berne and Freyburg stood 
securities for the tranquillity of Geneva. If the treaty 
should be broken by the duke or his subjects, possession 
of the Pays de Vaud might be taken by the governments 
of Berne and Freyburg. On the other hand, in case of its 
violation by Geneva, the former towns should be bound 
to take up arms against it. A considerable part of the 
war expenses was imposed on the duke, and in return 
his original rights over Geneva were restored to him. 
Thenceforwards the situation of the town was very pre- 
carious. The duke for the most part only fulfilled so 
much of the treaty as served his purpose, and scarcely 
concealed his thirst for revenge, which he watched for a 
safe occasion to gratify. On the other hand, the Swiss 
were tired of the league, and wished to secede from it. 
This determination was only altered by the most earnest 
supplications of the Genevans. 



1536'. 



ABOLITION OF CATHOLICISM. 



221 



The bishop excommunicated the town; the town threw 
off the authority of the bishop ; and the triumph of the 
new creed was decided. The images were destroyed by 
a spontaneous popular movement; and the council was 
persuaded by one Farell, subsequently a colleague of 
Calvin, to do away with the mass. The expulsion of 
the bishop, by which his intrigues were rendered harm- 
less,, was the most important step towards the attainment 
of freedom, and the reception of the reformed creed 
was the best means of retaining it; as the constant 
friendship of so powerful a neighbour as Berne was thus 
secured, by the double bond of policy and community 
of sentiment. 

In defiance of the treaty of St. Julian, the Savoyard 
nobility and the banished episcopal partisans continued 
their hostilities against Geneva. The town was closely 
blockaded, and reduced to severe extremities. Traitorous 
plans were discovered for its capture. The enemy showed 
themselves daily before the gates, and devastated even 
the suburbs. Duke Charles viewed these incidents in 
silence, if, indeed, he did not secretly encourage them. 
This equivocal demeanour was imputed to him by Berne 
as a breach of the treaty of St. Julian. Certain it was., 
he had closed that treaty reluctantly enough, and had 
fulfilled it as indifferently as possible ; his inactivity, 
However, during the hostile proceedings against Geneva, 
admitted of excuse on two grounds. The town had pro- 
voked his anger by the expulsion of their bishop, and 
the curtailment of his own ducal rights, and had given 
him a plausible pretext for evading the performance of 
his engagements. He was himself, besides, threatened 
with an attack on the side of France, and certainly had 
not the power, if he had even had the will, to keep 
within bounds the turbulence of his subjects. These 
extenuating circumstances were utterly overlooked, and 
nothing was regarded but the outrages which had taken 
place ; for Berne had resolved to turn the duke's em- 
barrassments to her own advantage. All negotiations 
were fruitless ; and Berne held a high and threatening 



222 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1536". 



language, demanding that the channels of trade should 
be opened; the banished Genevans expelled; the nobles 
of the Valid kept in check. A truce of six months 
desired by the duke in the consciousness of his weakness 
was refused him. Charles declared, with the energy of 
despair, that he considered himself no further bound by 
treaties. Several weeks later he sought vainly to retrieve 
the effects of this precipitation by a special embassy, and 
formal list of charges against Geneva. Berne was fully 
determined upon war — the rest of the Helvetic body 
strongly against it ; but Berne relied on the favourable 
sentiments of her own people. 

On the 21st of January, 1536, 7000 Bernese marched 
into the Vaud, and in a few days the whole district fell 
into their hands. Even the lake of Geneva did not stop 
their triumphant progress. They took possession of the 
district of Gex, and, on the south of the lake, of a con- 
siderable portion of the dukedom of Chablais. Such rapid 
and important conquests, in the worst season of the year, 
excited attention and envy in the rest of the Helvetic 
body. The confederates recommended the abandonment 
of a war in which the emperor might so easily mix, to 
the detriment of the whole league. Berne acquiesced 
with facility in many of their demands ; but in the main 
business resolutely adhered to her own purposes. The 
conquest of the Vaud was completed in 1554, by the 
ruin of the once-powerful counts of Gruyeres, who 
found themselves compelled to cede their extensive landed 
domains to Berne and Freyburg for a moderate sum of 
money; and thus underwent the same doom which had 
successively reduced to nothing all the ancient houses 
within the bounds of the confederation. 

The grasping spirit of Berne showed itself next in a 
dishonourable manner towards the Genevans. The latter 
had hoped for more than a mere transmission to her 
powerful ally of a sovereignty grounded in usurpation. 
It was death to their hopes, when Berne declared that 
ail the powers of the dukes and bishops had descended 
into her hands by right of conquest ! The main point 



1536. calvin. 223 

was, however, given up after long discussion. A co- 
burghership between the free towns of Berne and Geneva 
was closed for five and twenty years in 1536, which 
was afterwards converted to a perpetual league of the 
same description. 

Hardly had political independence been asserted, when 
its enjoyment was disturbed by religious discord ; and 
that ascendency which had been lost by dukes and bishops 
over Geneva was transferred to an itinerant preacher — 
John Calvin. 

The second great reformer of the sixteenth century 
was born at Noyon in Picardy, on the 10th of July, 
1509. His father, Gerard Chauvin, a cooper, devoted 
him at an early age to the clerical profession. Calvin, 
in a letter to Claude d'Hangest, abbot of St. Eloy at 
Noyon, avows himself indebted to the family of that 
prelate for early instruction and liberal education, When 
hardly twelve years old, he was appointed to a canonry 
in the cathedral of his native town ; and, six years after- 
wards, to a parochial cure, which he soon exchanged for 
another. Thus Calvin had obtained several benefices, 
by aid of patrons, before his twentieth year, and before 
the termination of his studies at Paris. Here he made 
the acquaintance of a countryman, some years older than 
himself, Peter Robert Olivetan, from whom he received 
the first germs of the new religious doctrines, which had 
already begun to obtain diffusion in France : he was 
thereby induced to quit the field of theology for that of 
law, which he studied at Orleans and afterwards at 
Bourges. In this he made rapid progress; and instructed 
himself at the same time in Greek under Melchior Vol- 
mar, a German, who confirmed him in the tendency to 
adventurous speculation, which had already been excited 
in his mind by Olivetan. In 1532 he returned to Paris, 
and gave up his benefices. In the same year he pub- 
lished a Latin commentary on the two books of Seneca, 
De dementia, under the name of Johannes Calvinus, 
lengthened and latinised from Jean Chauvin, according 
to the taste of the times. In the following year he was 



224 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1536. 



forced to flee from Paris, having incurred suspicion, along 
with his friend Michael Cop, the rector of the university, 
on account of some discourses of the latter on the new 
doctrine. Calvin next betook himself to Du Tillet, canon 
at Angouleme, with whom he pursued the tranquil course 
of his studies, and began to collect materials for his 
work on Christian Doctrine. From thence he repaired 
to the court of Margaret queen of Navarre, sister of 
Francis I. ; who, less from any decided attachment to 
the new creed than to science in general, protected men 
of learning whom their opinions had expelled from 
France. Here Calvin was well received, and formed 
the acquaintance of several men who in the sequel be- 
came useful to his party. He proceeded next to Basle, 
where he published his work on Christian Doctrine, 
Institutio Christians Religionis ; the intention of which 
was to clear his slandered brethren from the charges 
brought against them, from political motives, of being 
turbulent anabaptists, having nothing in common with 
Luther. It would be quite beside our purpose to en- 
large upon the points in which he went farther than 
Luther, with regard to the topics of free-will, account- 
ableness, and the merit of good works ; we content 
ourselves with indicating a few of the bold deductions 
which he drew from his own principles. He not only 
contested the supremacy of the pope, but the authority 
of general councils. In his view neither bishop nor 
priest could be visible head of the church ; and he ac- 
knowledged no other vows than baptismal ones, no other 
sacraments than baptism and the Lord's supper ; nor 
did he regard even these as indispensable to salvation. 
Masses he deemed a desecration ; saint- worship, idolatry. 
The preface to die above-mentioned work, which was 
addressed Ad Christianissimiim Re-gem qua hie ei liber 
pro confessione fidei offertur, had no effect in putting a 
stop to religious persecution in France ; as the most 
Christian king, Francis I., was totally devoid of all en- 
thusiasm, and actuated wholly by political motives. Cal- 
vin visited Italy, where he was favourably received by 



1538. 



CALVIN. 



225 



the duchess Renata, daughter of Louis XII. of France, 
and wife of Hercules d'Este ; but was soon compelled 
to take to flight, and returned once more to Paris. Here, 
however, he could not remain in safety, and took his 
way to Basle through Geneva, where the reformed doc- 
trines had now been established for some years, and where 
Farel was engaged in preaching them. Calvin united 
with this man ; and soon received a commission from 
the government as a teacher of theology, to which he 
devoted himself exclusively, leaving pulpit oratory to 
Farel. But they speedily drew a host of powerful ene- 
mies on their shoulders, by some trifling deviations from 
the established ceremonial. Under their auspices lea- 
vened bread was used in the sacrament ; the baptismal 
font was removed out of the church, and all festivals 
were abolished, excepting Sundays. These innovations 
were disapproved by the synod of Lausanne, and com- 
pliance with the decision of that body was enjoined on 
Calvin and Farel by the magistracy of Geneva : on their 
refusal, they were ordered to quit the town within three 
days, and took their departure accordingly in April, 
1538. Thence they proceeded to Berne, from which 
place Calvin went to Strasburg, where admission had 
been gained by Bucer for Luther's doctrines ten years 
previously. Here he was appointed, through the influ- 
ence of Bucer, to the professorship of theology ; and, at 
the same time, obtained permission to establish a French 
church, which soon became considerable by the influx 
of refugees from France. It was here that he published 
his work on the Lord's Supper, in which he set himself 
as well to controvert Luther's opinion, who interpreted 
that sacrament in the literal sense, as that of Zwingli, 
who understood it figuratively. It was not till a later 
period that he declared himself, without reservation, in 
favour of the latter doctrine. 

Meanwhile Calvin's views were still directed towards 
Geneva ; and his friends at length succeeded in effecting 
his recall. A deputation was sent from thence to Stras- 
burg, expressly for the purpose of soliciting the magis- 



226 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1538. 



tracy of that town to restore their pastor to his flock. 
On his return, he laid before the council a set of regul- 
ations with regard to church discipline, which were im- 
plicitly adopted. In accordance with these, a consistory 
was permanently established, consisting half of clerical, 
half of lay members, to watch over the conservation of 
morals and pure doctrine. By this body every one was 
liable to be called to account for the most insignificant 
words or acts ; and cases where ecclesiastical penalties 
seemed inadequate were referred for animadversion to 
the council. Thus Calvin was, in some sort, made the 
arbiter of every act, and almost every thought, of his 
fellow-countrymen. His spirit held exclusive sway in 
the council as in the consistory ; and neither of these 
bodies ever failed to punish any one who ventured to 
oppose his measures. Thus a member of the magistracy ' 
was displaced and sentenced to two months' imprison- 
ment, " because he was a man of irregular life, and 
connected with Calvin's enemies." In like manner Jacob 
Cruet was condemned to the block, for having written 
immoral verses and godless epistles, and for having con- 
spired to overthrow the ordinances of the church. 

The pious perseverance with which every excess and 
disorder was prosecuted and punished at Geneva occa- 
sioned popular tumults, and at last a regular revolt, 
which was followed by judicial executions. However 
great were the services of Calvin, in introducing repub- 
lican manners and useful activity, — of which the effects, 
after the lapse of ages, are still visible in the industry and 
intellectual tone of Geneva, — yet he inflexibly enforced 
the rigorous maintenance of orthodoxy, the idea of which 
he transferred from the system in which he had grown 
up to that which he had later espoused. His influence 
procured the exile of Bolsec, an ex-Carmelite, for having 
dared to attack the doctrine of predestination. A still 
deeper disgrace was brought on the memory of Calvin 
by the execution of Michael Servede (Servetus), who 
suffered at the stake for holding anti-trinitarian tenets, 
which, however, he had not attempted to disseminate 



15m 



EFFECTS OF THE REFORMATION. 



227 



at Geneva. Calvin had, indeed, proposed a milder mode 
of death ; but it is easier to set bigot zeal in motion than 
to moderate its subsequent violence. 

The manners of the great Genevan reformer were 
marked by strict sobriety ; his character was sombre and 
inflexible. His only idea of friendship was utility to 
his grand design ; his only passion was centered in the 
triumph of his opinions. His temper was impatient, 
and endured no contradiction. ee None of my struggles/' 
he wrote to Bucer, " against my other failings, many 
and great as they are, are equal to those which I have 
to wage with my temper ; over this devouring beast I 
have not yet attained the mastery." The tone of his 
controversial writings was almost always sharp and con- 
temptuous ; and he seldom succeeds in suppressing his 
full consciousness of superiority. As a theologian, Calvin 
stood second to none of his contemporaries in depth of 
learning, acuteness, and the art of setting forth his sub- 
ject. His Latin compositions are distinguished for me- 
thod, correctness, and dignity : he was, moreover, an 
accomplished jurist, and able politician. But none of 
these advantages singly, nor all conjointly, would ever 
have raised him to the head of a distinct religious party, 
but for his bold rejection of outward ceremonial. It was 
this that, on the one hand, gained the support of many 
instructed persons, who were disposed to regard as de- 
rogatory ail appeals to the senses, while it furnished the 
uninstructed with a compendious method of marking out 
their difference from the opposite persuasion, independ- 
ently of any essential ground of separation, to investi- 
gate which such disciples were neither willing nor able. 

The effects of the reformation made themselves 
manifest in all the relations of private and public life. 
General attention was directed to the internal wants 
and welfare of the country ; and the rising generation 
acquired taste for the arts of peace, and for the sciences 
by which the mind is most enlarged and elevated. The 
study of the ancients and of history had been revived 
by theological enquiries. If enlistments still continued 



228 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



to take place for foreign services, yet the venality of 
rulers and their subjects had ceased to be so prevalent as 
formerly. Improvements were made in agriculture, 
commerce, and manufactures ; and the reception given 
to fugitive co-religionists introduced or furthered several 
branches of industry. Alms-houses and hospitals were 
instituted or improved. Strict regulations were made 
against prodigality, gambling, and usury ; and rigid 
limits were set to public amusements. 

Under the name of ecclesiastical discipline, the clergy 
in Geneva and the canton of Berne assumed a very 
extensive jurisdiction. The clergy possessed important 
weight and influence with the people ; and when they 
interfered in word or in writing with the constituted 
authorities, their dicta were in general received as deci- 
sive. Their intervention, as might be expected, was 
not in all cases free from polemical passions, or sacer- 
dotal arrogance ; but it oftener took an aspect of bene- 
ficence, particularly when the secular authorities neglected 
their duties. The better part of the clergy themselves 
never lost sight of the evils engendered by an unlimited 
domination of their order. 

The independence of the cantons, and the difference 
of their forms of polity, necessarily occasioned variations 
in their church discipline. These were taken advantage 
of by the enemies of reform to reproach its friends with 
the want of a sure foundation for their faith. The 
subsequent evangelical leaders, harassed by the virulent 
attacks of their opponents, imagined the production of 
explicit confessions to be requisite for their justification. 
The four evangelical cantons, Zurich, Berne, Basle, and 
SchafFhausen, and the three allied towns, St. Gall, Muhl- 
hausen, and Bienne, agreed upon a common form of 
confession, to be laid before the general assembly of the 
church when convoked by the emperor. In the same 
year (1566) Geneva also issued a confession, composed 
by Fare!. Finally, on the 1st of March, 1566, the so 
called Helvetic confession was promulgated at Zurich 
which was also received by the reformed churches in 



1545. 



COUNCIL OF TRENT. 



229 



Scotland, Holland, and Hungary. Thus the successors 
of the first reformers, by holding fast the letter, often 
departed from the spirit of their great predecessors, 
thereby aggravating the schisms among protestants, 
and disgracing themselves and their cause by persecu- 
tion. 

The reformed cantons made frequent, but for the 
most part ineffectual, intercessions for their oppressed co- 
religionists in France and Savoy. Numerous refugees 
from these countries found protection and support in 
Switzerland. Geneva became a city of refuge for per- 
secuted Italians, and Zurich for the English, who fled 
from the tyranny of queen Mary. 

The church of Rome, unable to withstand any longer 
the demands for reformation, even of catholics them- 
selves, had at last consented to open a council at Trent. 
The selection of this spot, on the borders of Italy, and 
within the bounds of the empire, gave assurance to the 
emperor, as well as to the pope, that no third party 
could establish a predominance there, and each of them 
expected to confirm his own ascendency. Pope Paul III., 
with many expressions of sorrow that the Evil One had 
succeeded in enticing away a part of the confederates 
from the bosom of the church, exhorted them collectively 
to obedience to the council. The evangelical party re- 
plied that they had published their confession of faith ; 
that they could not regard a council as impartial, which 
was subordinated entirely to the pope ; but that, on the 
other hand, they were ready to conform themselves to 
whatever should be resolved in a free council, and ac- 
cording to the word of God. The absence of the pro- 
testants disappointed the hope of bringing them back to 
subjection to the Romish church by the sentence of the 
council, which was now forced to content itself with 
condemning all who rejected its doctrines. Many im- 
provements of discipline were enacted by this body ; 
but at the same time it riveted the fetters of belief, 
confirmed the papal authority in ecclesiastical matters, 
and encroached so far on the rights of secular rulers, 

q 3 



230 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1519. 

that several catholic states refused to submit to its deci- 
sions. Its reception by the catholic cantons occasioned 
the reformed ones to be regarded by them more than 
ever as renegades and reprobates, while it served to in- 
crease the suspicions and imbitterment of the latter. All 
sentiments of patriotism yielded to religious hatred, 
which constantly found new food for itself. 

In former times the confederates had always main- 
tained a jealous vigilance with regard to the pope, con- 
sidered as a foreign power, and with regard to the cle- 
rical order in general, as instruments of that power. 
But now, the zeal of polemics, and the prevalent ideas 
of the duty of submissiveness to the spiritual authority, 
placed a part of the Helvetic body entirely at the com- 
mand of their ecclesiastical superiors ; and, by conse- 
quence, attached them to that line of foreign policy most 
conformable to clerical interests. At this epoch, cardinal 
Charles Borromeo exercised a distinguished influence in 
spiritual and political matters. Elevated at the age of 
three- and- twenty to the bishoprick of Milan, and the 
dignity of cardinal, he felt an early vocation to the office 
of reformer of the catholic clergy and church discipline ; 
but his mind was so thoroughly imbued with the spirit 
of a dominant priesthood, that even the heads of the 
catholic cantons w r ere compelled to resist his proceedings. 
He powerfully contributed towards putting in execution 
the decrees of the council of Trent ; he established at 
Milan a college for the bringing up of Swiss youth to 
the clerical profession ; he induced the pope to keep a 
permanent nuncio in the catholic cantons. His esta- 
blishment of Jesuits at Lucerne was still more momentous 
in its influence on the public mind, and on education : 
wdrile the effect produced by the Jesuits on the upper 
classes, was rivalled by that which the order of Capu- 
chins exercised over the lower. 

The first permanent nuncio, the bishop of Vercelli, 
a protege of the cardinal Borromeo, brought about, in 
1579; a l ea g ue between the bishop of Basle and the seven 
catholic cantons. This may be regarded as a sort of. 



1582. 



CALENDAR CONTROVERSY. 



231 



catholic counterpart to the Christian league of Berne and 
Zurich,, mentioned in a former chapter. The contracting 
parties promised each other aid in the affairs of religion, 
&c. The seven cantons engaged to retain in the catholic 
faith such subjects of the bishop as had not yet abandoned 
it, and to use their endeavours in re-converting those who 
had apostatised. In 1586, the so-called Borromean, or 
golden league, was sworn by the seven catholic cantons, 
the provisions of which were similar to those of the 
foregoing one, with the addition of the following clause : 
— That, in case of individual members manifesting any 
inclination to desert the faith, the others should compel 
them to abide by it, and visit the promoters of defection 
with condign punishment. 

A ludicrous example of the length to which distrust 
of Rome was carried by the protestant party was af- 
forded by the controversy excited on the occasion of the 
reform of the Julian calendar. Astronomers had reck- 
oned that the Julian calendar, which, after every three 
years, each containing 36 o days, introduced an inter- 
calary year of 366, had produced, in the year 1582, a 
miscalculation amounting to ten days, thus gradually 
disturbing the uniformity and correctness of the measure 
of time ; as, according to more accurate observations, the 
year contained about twelve minutes less. Pope Gre- 
gory XIII. commenced his reform of the calendar by 
striking off ten days from the year 1582. The catholic 
cantons adopted this arrangement, after Unterwalden had 
offered some objections to it. The protestants, on the 
other hand, conceived an apprehension lest the reception 
of a calendar decreed by the pope, and named after him, 
might pave the way for future papal encroachments ; 
and lest their compliance might wear the appearance of 
deference to a papal mandate. The catholic cantons not 
only adopted the Gregorian calendar, but enjoined its 
observance on the free bailiwicks, and instructed the 
vogts to punish recusants. Irritated by this mode of 
proceeding, Zurich turned the affair into a question of 
religion : the greatest ferment, however, was in the 

q 4 



232 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 



1602. 



Thurgau. The two religious parties had now not only 
different feast days, but confusion took place on market 
days, and other civil arrangements. After the waste of 
much discussion on the matter at successive diets, the 
neutral cantons, in concert with the French ambassador, 
finally concluded an arrangement, by which the regu- 
lation of the calendar was committed to each canton 
within the bounds of its own territory. 

Geneva continued still the object of undisguised ab- 
horrence to the leaders of the catholic hierarchy, and of 
hostility more dangerous, because more concealed, to the 
reigning duke of Savoy, Charles Emanuel. The town 
reposed in false security, heedless of the warnings given 
from time to time against its crafty neighbour, whose 
policy rejected no expedient which could forward his 
purposes. Even the notices received of the near approach 
of the enemy were treated with contempt or carelessness. 
On the night of the llth-12th December, 1602, 2000 
troops of Savoy advanced unperceived on the town, and 
the duke himself hovered in the neighbourhood. Before 
three in the morning, the walls had already been scaled 
by 200 of them, who made an attempt to burst open the 
new gate from the inside, while estafettes were sent off 
to announce the capture of the town. The burghers, 
taken by surprise as they were, and half naked, never- 
theless rushed to arms with alacrity, slew seventy-six 
of the Savoyards, and took thirteen prisoners, whom they 
afterwards hanged as brigands and assassins. The rest 
endeavoured to save themselves by leaping from the 
walls ; and the discomfited troops hastened to Bonne, 
where the duke was awaiting their triumph. cc Vous avez 
fait Id une belle cagade" were the words he used to 
D'Aubigny, the leader of the expedition. A Savoyard 
embassy, sent to Berne to excuse this treacherous inroad, 
received an intimation from the government that they 
had better retreat as quick as they could from the po- 
pular indignation. Terms of peace were, however, at 
length negotiated by the neutral cantons, which provided 
for free intercourse betwixt Geneva and Savoy, and 



1602. 



THE ESCALADE 



233 



precluded the duke from stationing any garrison at a 
distance within sixteen miles from the town. This affair 
has preserved^ under the title of the escalade, a memor- 
able station in Swiss history. 



CHAP. XV. 

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR 
TO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

1620—1648. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE GRLSONS. EARLY HISTORY, FORMS OF 

GOVERNMENT. INFLUENCE OF PARTICULAR FAMILIES. 

SPANISH AND FRENCH PARTIES. POPULAR TUMULTS — 

MASSACRE IN THE VALTEL1NE. FRUITLESS NEGOTIATIONS WITH 

SPAIN AND AUSTRIA. SUBJECTION OF THE GRISONS BY THE 

LATTER POWER. RECOVERY OF THEIR FREEDOM AND INDE- 
PENDENCE. STATE OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES IN SWITZERLAND. 

THIRTY YEARS' WAR. DISUNION IN THE CONFEDERACY.— 

INROADS OF FOREIGN ARMIES. INTRIGUES OF FOREIGN AM- 
BASSADORS. PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. DECLARATION OF 

SWISS INDEPENDENCE. FOREIGN RELATIONS. FRAGMENTARY 

STATE OF KNOWLEDGE IN SWITZERLAND. 

66 With the close of the reformation/' says a respectable 
Swiss annalist ? 9 u expires almost all that can animate 
and enliven the historian of Switzerland. He has now 
to wade through a dull period, equally void of original 
records as it is of events worthy to be recorded : under 
such circumstances, the task of writing the history of 
his country becomes as great a burden as it was pre- 
viously a pleasure. It is true, that the age immediately 
preceding the reformation was by no means very ho- 
nourable to Switzerland ; still it was an age of unex- 
hausted national vigour. The sera of the reformation 
elevates the mind by the spectacle of the triumph of en- 
lightenment over darkness ; but later times show little 
else than discord and degeneracy. The history of the 
Swiss, from the foundation of their freedom to the over- 



* J. Conrad Vogelin. 



234 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



throw of their old eternal league, may be said to resemble 
their mountain heights, the base of which exhibits smiling 
and fertile fields and valleys, the middle region wild but 
majestic ridges,— from thence to the summit lifelessness 
and ruin." 

Without identifying our sentiments with those of the 
author here cited, we must agree with him that the his- 
tory of the old Helvetic body (so far as progressive 
development is included in the idea of history) may in 
some sense be considered to close with the age of the 
reformation. And, perhaps, a gentle wish may unre- 
proved escape the tip of our pen, that for the space of 
nearly two centuries ourselves, as well as our readers, 
might be allowed to indulge in unmolested slumber, till 
aroused by the first mutterings of a mighty social change, 
which (like the hollow sounds preceding the fall of the 
Rossberg) foreboded the first outbreak of the French 
revolution. True, the intervening space is occupied with 
warfare and diplomacy in abundance ; but diplomacy is 
a sharper's game, and war an inglorious squabble, save 
when sanctified by national feelings and interests. It 
will be some relief to deviate for the present from the 
main track of our history into those remoter regions 
which have hitherto received less of our notice, and to 
resume the course of events which raised the highlanders 
of Rhsetia to the rank, first of allies, and afterwards 
members of the Swiss league. 

The scenery of Switzerland Proper, with the excep- 
tion of the lakes, does not bear away the prize of varied 
beauty from the vales of the Grisons, where nature has 
been lavish of her loftiest style of ornament. Rocky 
battlements frown upon the narrow path of the traveller, 
or indent the distant horizon with their fainter hues and 
outlines. Life or living thing haunts not their summits ; 
sound and motion there are none but of the glacier- stream 
from its icy reservoir, or the avalanche rolling in thunder 
over fissures and abysses, or the clouds that fleet or lower 
upon the breasts of the mountains, whose summits glit- 
ter high above their region in the sunlight. Lower down, 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GRJSONS. 



235 



the Alpine meadows, spotted with flocks and shepherds' 
huts, repose in primitive stillness and simplicity. No 
suspicion penetrates these pastoral solitudes of the pro- 
gress of human intellect, or the arts of modern luxury. 
Lower still, lie smiling villages, half enveloped in thick- 
ets, cheerful country houses, with their pleasure grounds 
and vineyards, and scattered hamlets, seeming to mock 
the vicinage of the knightly towers whose ruins have 
frowned from their rocky site for centuries. 

The modes of thought and degrees of civilisation in 
these highlands are as various as the features of their 
scenery. There are few countries of Europe in which 
circumstances have coincided to produce such a motley 
mixture of manners and of usages : the very form of 
the vallies, by which one set of inhabitants is divided 
from the rest as though in separate apartments, conduces 
not a little to the same eflfect. Local and communal 
rights oppose impediments to the settlement of strangers, 
and the natives themselves are counted strangers in 
every valley but their own. Marriages are rare between 
inhabitants of distant vallies ; and a certain set of ha- 
bits and ideas, with their accompanying propensities and 
prejudices, are faithfully transmitted from one century 
to another. 

But even if this insulated mode of life, together with 
varieties of climate, were not enough to stamp the traits 
of separate populations on the different inhabitants of 
these highland glens, that effect would be produced by 
their diversities of language, which in general draw the 
strongest lines of national demarcation. There is no 
doubt that the people of the Grisons sprung from several 
sources. First of all, some branches of the original 
Gaulish stem occupied these regions under the name of 
Lepontii and Taurisci : afterwards, the wars of the Gauls 
in Italy occasioned emigrations out of Tuscany. The 
valleys of the Lepontii and Taurisci afforded refuge to 
thousands from the horrors of war, and the rage of bar- 
barians. According to the legend preserved by Livy, 
the fugitives were headed by one Rhaetus, whose name 



286 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



became transferred to the people. Even at the present 
day there are traces to be found which confirm the au- 
thenticity of this legend. Above all,, the old Italian 
language is traceable up to our own times under the title 
of the Romanisch or Rom aim sell. This dialect is un- 
questionably an offspring of the Roman language,, not of 
the days of Augustus, but of earlier times and ruder 
districts. 

A second dialect, spoken in the Engadines at the 
present day, is the Ladin, which, though related to the 
former, is more musical, and more nearly approaching 
to the Latin or modern Italian. This seems to have 
been imported by a new body of emigrants, who are 
said to have fled thither in the time of the second Punic 
war. Thus there are two languages in the Grisons, 
unknownin any other part of Europe. Both have been 
used by preachers, writers, and poets ; and the districts 
w r here they are spoken are precluded by that circum- 
stance from intercourse with others, more than even by 
their walls of rock. 

A third language spoken in the country is the Ger- 
man, which has always been used exclusively, with the 
exception of Latin, in courts of justice, and which has 
already, in a great measure, superseded both the others. 

A fourth is the Italian, which prevails on the borders 
of Italy, and particularly in the valleys of Misocco, 
Salanca, and Puschiavo. 

The effects of the foregoing causes were aided by the 
influence of political arrangements in converting every 
valley of the Grisons into the residence of a separate 
population, each having little in common with the 
others. After the revolution in the fifteenth century, 
which gave freedom to these mountainous districts, the 
people rose at once to absolute sovereignty from a state 
of feudal bondage and subjection. The highest possible 
degree of individual freedom lay at the foundation of the 
new constitution ; and the popular passion for unre- 
strained free agency was favoured by the variety of lan- 
guages and localities. 



FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 



237 



Thus arose the Rhaetian league, a federative system 
without precedent or parallel in the history of the civil- 
ised world. Each individual member of it was a little 
lord in his own commune. He gave his voice on all 
public occasions ; was capable of every public function ; 
provided sparingly for the maintenance of his clergy 
and his schoolmasters, and generally not at all for that 
of the civil authorities. Every little knot of families 
formed a hamlet ; every hamlet might be regarded as 
a small independent state, with its peculiar jurisdictions, 
rights, and privileges ; each had its own local adminis- 
tration, under the presidence of a magistrate called 
Cuvig. Several hamlets together formed a commune \ 
in which, however, the separate rights of each were 
made matter of reservation. At the head of it stood 
the amman, who presided over the council and courts of 
justice, conducted the general government in the name of 
the commune, and represented his little republic in the 
general diets of the league, after his commune had sup- 
plied him with the necessary instructions. 

A circle of neighbouring communes, without prejudice 
to their separate rights, formed a higher and more ex- 
tensive jurisdiction. A landamman, who in some places 
bore the title of Podesta, and in others that of Land-vogt, 
held the executive power with the concurrence of a 
council. Each of these districts formed a ♦republic 
equally independent with any of the Swiss cantons, with 
this difference, that it constituted, along with other dis- 
tricts of like extent, a league empowered to negotiate 
with foreigners. Ilhaetia was divided into three such 
leagues in the fifteenth century, and from thence was 
derived its title of the Three Leagues, distinguished as 
the League of the Ten Jurisdictions, that of God's House, 
and the Grey League. Each of these was connected 
with the rest by special treaties. Each had its own 
general assembly, and all were represented in a grand 
assembly or diet. This only took place once a year, 
excepting in extraordinary cases. In the interim a 



<23S 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1620. 



congress of the presidents of the three leagues conducted 
the current affairs of minor importance. 

Thus the art of man strove to outdo the plastic hand 
of Nature in moulding the Rhstians into a number oi 
petty populations, which had neither climate, language 
usages, laws, nor feelings in common. That no repul- 
sive element might be wanting to complete disunion, 
religion threw a fresh apple of discord into the motley 
mass ; and foreign intrigue speedily took advantage of 
the schism which arose here, as in Switzerland, between 
the reformed and catholic churches. 

Since the epoch of the battle of Pavia, which put 
Spain in possession of Milan and all Lombard}^ that 
court aimed continually, though secretly, to extend its 
dominion ever the Grison territory of the Valteline, in 
order to maintain through the Tyrol a closer and more 
uninterrupted connection with Austria, from whence 
Spain, in the existing state of things, could only receive 
aids or reinforcements at Milan, through the territory 
of Venice or the Grisons. With these views the Spanish 
viceroy at Milan seized every pretext for mixing in 
the transactions of the Valteline, where religious zeal 
produced perpetual differences. For since the Grison 
league had permitted the free exercise of the evangelical 
persuasion in the Valteline, many of the communes had 
espoused, that persuasion, and much dissension and dis- 
cord was the consequence. 

The king of France, as the enemy of Austria and of 
Spain, warned the Grisons of the secret views of the two 
combined powers ; and these warnings were re-echoed 
by the Venetians, who had reason to fear encroachments 
from the same quarter. Venice, France, and Spain sent 
ambassadors to the Grisons, who were lavish of fair 
words and presents to the heads of the leading houses, 
who, notwithstanding the nominal sovereignty and self- 
government of the people, practically directed public 
affairs by their personal influence. Of the two most 
influential families, Planta and Sails, the former headed 
the Spanish, the latter the French party. Each side 



1620. MASSACRE IN THE VALTELINE, 2SQ 

was accused by the other of treasonable practices, and 
each endeavoured to spirit up the communes in its own 
favour. These^ at length, assembled round their ban- 
ners, and set up a criminal tribunal at Coire, for the 
trial of (so called) traitors to their country. Thereupon, 
as commonly takes place in popular tumults, innocent 
and guilty alike were imprisoned, exiled, or robbed of 
their property ; and two individuals, holding eminent 
stations, brought to the block. The evangelical clergy 
industriously employed themselves in blowing up the 
sparks of civil discord to a flame. They spread the 
report that the viceroy of Milan had sent large sums 
into the country to promote the Spanish alliance, and 
that, in case of ill success in that undertaking, he was 
resolved to throw the Valteline into confusion, fall on 
the protestants, and celebrate a new St. Bartholomew by 
the massacre of the whole evangelical party. These 
reports, which were too soon to be verified, produced 
the desired effect throughout the country. Rudolf Planta 
was compelled to fly from the Engadine into the Tyrol. 
A criminal tribunal was erected under the auspices of a 
set of protestant preachers, which pronounced numerous 
sentences of outlawry and confiscation, banished some 
from the country, and brought others to the block. 

The banished party leagued itself with Spain, Milan, 
and Austria in a treacherous plot for massacring the 
protestants in the Valteline, and for separating that dis- 
trict from the Grisons. The subjection and oppression 
under which it laboured, and the general aversion enter- 
tained by its inhabitants for the reformed faith which 
was favoured by its rulers, held out hopes of a favourable 
issue to the enterprise. The conspirators secured a nu- 
merous body of adherents in the Valteline, and even in 
the Grisons, collected under various pretences on the 
frontier, and awaited the auspicious moment for action. 
On Sunday, the 19th of July, 1620, these bands, led by 
Rudolf and Pompey Planta, fell by surprise on the un- 
fortunate district. Alarums sounded from all sides, and 
a massacre of many hundred protestants ensued, marked 



240 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1620. 



with circumstances of exquisite atrocity. Some were 
thrown out of windows, shot, strangled, or burned; many- 
were flayed alive ; others had their eyes put out ; others 
again were beaten to death with sticks, torn to pieces, 
beheaded, or mutilated in various w^ays. Neither beauty 
nor youth, age, deserts, or dignity, — not even the ties of 
friendship nor of family affection, — could mitigate the 
rage of these savage zealots. One fellow is said to have made 
it matter of boast that he had murdered eighteen persons 
in one day. The head of an evangelical preacher was 
brought into his own church, stuck on the pulpit, and 
mocked, it is said, in the same words as the crucified 
J esus. At Teglio, the protestants having shut themselves 
up in the church, the murderers climbed up to the 
windows and fired on the wretches within : at length the 
doors were forced, and those who had fallen were to be en- 
vied in comparison with those who came alive into the hands 
of their enemies. The victorious zealots seized with 
blood-dripping hands the reins of government, and de- 
clared the independence of the Valteline.* 

It was the Austrian and Spanish policy rather to 
prompt than repress these horrors, with the view of 
taking advantage of the general confusion to possess 
themselves of the Valteline, — perhaps of the whole 
of the Grisons. Negotiations were opened with these 
courts, in the vain hope of inducing them to part 
with the posts and passes which they occupied in the 
Valteline. They were found, however, less disposed to 
part with what they had got, than to appropriate Chia- 
venna and Bormio, as well as the lower Engadine, in 
order to keep a passage open between Milan and the 
Tyrol, for mutual aid against the French in Italy and 
Germany. As the negotiations soon became too tedious 
for the patience of the people in many communes of the 
Grisons, the peasantry took to arms in a tumultuary 
manner, and marched on Bormio and the Valteline, to 
conquer the land on their own account, but effected 
nothing by their enterprise, excepting that they exas- 

* For a full description of these scenes see Fox's Book of Martyrs. 



1623. 



SUBJECTION TO AUSTRIA. 



241 



perated the archduke of Austria, who, exclaiming, " If 
you will have war, you shall have it ! " marched a body 
of troops into the Grisons. After an obstinate but fruitless 
struggle, the insurgents were compelled to yield to the 
overwhelming force of the Austrians, who reclaimed their 
old hereditary sovereignty over the league of the Ten Ju- 
risdictions, while the two other leagues were forced to agree 
that the troops of Spain and Austria should in all future 
time be allowed free passage through their territory. 

The French monarch could not acquiesce in an 
arrangement which allowed the Austrians entrance at 
any moment into Italy, and established their ascend- 
ancy so completely in that country. He closed an al- 
liance, accordingly, in 1623, with the pope, Venice, 
and Savoy, and marched an army through Switzer- 
land into the Grisons. Berne and Zurich allowed his 
troops free passage through their territories, and the 
emigrants from the Grisons formed the vanguard of his 
army. On its advance, it was joyfully joined by the 
mass of the armed population; the garrisons of Austria 
were driven out of the Ten Jurisdictions, and possession 
was taken of Chiavenna, Bormio, and the Valteline. 
These territories, which had formerly been subject to 
the league, were freed from its jurisdiction in the treaty 
of peace dictated by France, and shortly afterwards ac- 
ceded to on the part of Spain and Austria. But so soon 
as peace was again broken between France and Spain, 
and hostilities were recommenced in Italy, the emperor 
marched 40,000 men into the Grisons so suddenly, that 
no defence was possible. A part of the army was de- 
tached to the aid of the Spaniards into Lombardy, while 
the rest remained to overawe the Grisons. The Ten 
Jurisdictions, along with the lower Engadine, became 
once more the subject land of Austria. 

This apparently hopeless aspect of affairs was suddenly 
altered by the peace closed between France and the em- 
peror at Cherasco, by the terms of which the latter en- 
gaged to withdraw his troops from the Grisons. So soon 

R 



242 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. l6S9» 

as the Austrian garrisons were drawn off and their 
works demolished, the whole people joyfully resumed 
their ancient league, and posted 3000 men under arms 
on the frontiers of the country. After the land had thus 
been freed from foreign domination, the inhabitants 
addressed humble petitions to France and Spain for 
leave to retain peaceably their newly-recovered territory. 
Accordingly, a treaty of perpetual peace between Spain 
and the Grisons was closed in 163Q, at Milan, in virtue 
of which the sovereignty of the Grison league was fully 
re- established in Bormio, Chiavenna, and the Valteline, 
with the single proviso that the catholic church should 
retain its exclusive rights in these districts — a proviso 
which precisely coincided with the wishes of the catholic 
communes. In this manner good neighbourhood was 
restored with the house of Austria, while Gustavus 
Adolphus furnished that house with fighting enough in 
Germany; so that it was well content to retain its 
allowed prerogatives in the Engadine and within the Ten 
Jurisdictions, without further attempts to restore an an- 
tiquated sovereignty. Ten years had hardly elapsed before 
these districts purchased the jurisdiction which Austria 
still retained in their territory. Thus the Grisons became 
free and independent, along with the two other leagues 
in Upper Rhsetia. 

Though the treaties and campaigns of the Grisons 
had supplied the Swiss cantons with matter in abun- 
dance for discussions and discourses in diets and council- 
rooms, they had given birth to no distinguished enter- 
prise for the vindication of Rhaetian independence. 
This resulted from the state of continual discord kept 
up between the several cantons. If the reformed can- 
tons wished to act, they were thwarted by the catholics ; 
if the catholic would have been active, the protestants 
were sure to oppose themselves : the former sided with 
Spain and Austria, the latter with France and Venice. 
The one took gold from one party, the other from 
the other, and closed treaties and sent soldiers to 



16'S9. STATE OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES. 

serve under the standards of those foreign powers to 
which they had attached themselves; a practice which, 
while it enriched particular families, impoverished and 
orphaned others. 

In the free bailiwicks, where the power lay between 
catholics and protestants, the two persuasions quarrelled 
everlastingly. Although in the terms of the general 
pacification, both parties in these vogtships enjoyed 
equal freedom of worship ; yet the enjoyment of this 
privilege was imbittered to the catholics by the reformed 
vogts, and, on the other hand, by the catholic vogts 
to the protestants. Ecclesiastics mixed themselves 
up, as usual, in the matter. The bishop of Basle, sup- 
ported by the emperor, as long as his arms were vic- 
torious in Germany, demanded of Muhlhausen and Basle 
restitution of all the property of his monastery, which 
he had lost long ago. The abbot of St. Gall reclaimed 
larger jurisdictions in the Thurgau and the Rheinthal 
than could equitably be given him ; the abbot of Ein- 
siedlen maintained, in opposition to Schwytz, a right of 
taxing the forest lands ; the abbot of Fischinger wished 
to erect a catholic altar in the reformed church at Lus- 
torf. Each of these reverend dignitaries found partisans 
as well as assailants. And more than once it had nearly 
come to civil war in Switzerland, which was only with- 
held from breaking out by the fear of the advantage 
which would be taken of it by foreigners. For at this 
crisis the thirty years' war, which originated between 
catholics and protestants in Bohemia, had not only 
spread over Germany, but involved in the sphere of its 
ravages Sweden and Italy, Spain, France, and Hun- 
gary. This war had been begun about matters of faith ; 
but it was carried on for the acquisition of territory. 
French and Venetians, Spaniards and Austrians, in turn, 
negotiated for passages through the mountain passes 
of the Grisons, or solicited the alliance of the confe- 
derates ; and the armies of the belligerent powers, when 
they drove each other from battle-field to battle-field on 

r 2 



244 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. l6SQ, 

German ground, often skirted very narrowly trie bor- 
ders of Switzerland. But the confederates, in the con- 
sciousness of internal weakness and discord, had no 
desire, in addition to the evils which they already en- 
dured, to see the swords of foreigners in their valleys. 
They, therefore, prudently maintained the neutrality 
and territory of Switzerland inviolate. But so great was 
their disunion that they hindered each other in the 
protection of their common domains and allies. 
When the allied town of Muhlhausen came into peril 
by the incursions of the Swedish and imperial troops, 
Zurich and Berne sent forces for its protection; 
but when the Bernese would have marched through the 
passes of Soleure, the guards refused a passage, and 
sounded an alarm. The land-vogts of Soleure sur- 
rounded the troops of Berne, fired on them, them 
down, killed many of their number, and disarmed the 
rest. Soleure was, indeed, forced to give heavy com- 
pensation, and some of the offenders w r ere condemned 
to death, others to banishment ; but hatred and distrust 
were not to be mitigated by legal proceedings. Shortly 
afterwards, when the Swedish marshal Horn^ in order 
to surprise the Austrian garrison of Constance, had 
forced a way for his troops through the town of Stein, 
in the Thurgau, belonging to Zurich, the catholic mem- 
bers of the confederacy upbraided the reformers with 
favouring Sweden to the prejudice of the emperor. Uri, 
Schwytz, Unterwalden, and Zug, by way of counter- 
poise, marched 3000 of their troops on the Lake of Con- 
stance. But this occasioned the instant arming of 
Zurich ; and a menace on the part of that canton, that 
her forces should immediately combine with those of 
Sweden if the catholic confederates made common cause 
with Austria. 

Soon afterwards the imperialists at Schaffhausen in^ 
fringed on the Swiss territory, as the Swedes had done 
at Stein. The men of Schaffhausen, indeed, took up 
arms ; and some troops of Zurich marched out of the 



1048. FOREIGN INROADS AND EMBASSIES. 245 

Thurgau to their assistance : but the measures taken 
were tardy, feeble, and isolated. The villages of Bargen, 
Altdorf, Begguigen, Barzheim, and Schleitheim were 
partly sacked and burnt by the imperialists. The pea- 
sants, however, banded themselves with good success 
against the invaders ; while the panic-struck government 
of Schaffhausen only exchanged epistolary vollies with 
the imperial marshals. 

Nevertheless, the troops of Austria made repeated in- 
cursions on the territory of Basle, and scoffed at the 
defensive preparations of the Helvetic body. 

It was often, indeed, insisted upon at diets, that the 
holy and inviolable rights of the Swiss soil called loudly 
for a standing force on the frontiers. But the people of 
the interior cantons said that those on the frontiers 
might take care of themselves, and exclaimed against 
the expense of a standing army. Every one was will- 
ing to have the benefits of a federal union ; but none 
would sacrifice any thing to preserve them. Moreover, 
the ambassadors of foreign powers interfered, as usual, 
either in an imperative style, or by means of secret 
intrigue and insidious counsel : and, even in minute 
and near concernments, the confederates had not always 
the spirit to counteract their influence. 

At this time many strangers roamed into Switzer- 
land from the seat of war in Italy and Germany. 
Adventurers and fugitives excited the people against 
the authorities, in order to take advantage of the public 
confusion. These unserviceable vagrants were so nu- 
merous, that in one day 100 of them were counted at 
Schwytz, and at least sixfold that number in the county 
of Baden. The land was rendered quite unsafe, until 
rigour was used against them. At Brerngarten, 236 
malefactors were sentenced to death within a single 
year. Such severities struck a salutary terror into 
those birds of passage. 

The country was, however, less relieved by the 
sword of justice than by the conclusion of the ge- 

r 3 



9A6 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1648. 



neral peace of Westphalia, after a thirty years' war, 
between the principal European powers. This treaty, 
which restored the tranquillity of Europe, concerned 
itself besides with the relations of the Helvetic body. 
That body, which had once formed a portion of the 
German empire, had for ages ceased to consider itself 
dependent on the imperial government, to the support 
of which it was neither called to contribute men nor 
money. The only remaining vestige of dependence was 
the formal confirmation of their franchises, from time to 
time renewed to the confederates by the emperor. The 
Swabian war, the design of which had been to reduce 
the Swiss to their original subservience to the empire, 
missed its aim ; but the claims of the empire were never 
entirely abandoned. Occasional encroachments on the 
Helvetic body took place, — in particular through the 
agency of the court of the imperial chamber. But 
now the Swiss ambassador succeeded in obtaining the 
insertion of a clause into the treaty of Westphalia, which 
formally, and for ever, declared the absolute independence 
and separation of the lands of the confederacy from the 
German empire. So that Switzerland offers, perhaps, the 
single example of a country, the political self-existence 
of which had never been acknowledged till the energetic- 
epochs of that existence had been long past, and till it 
no longer possessed strength to defend, without the aid 
of foreigners, its tardily acknowledged independence. 

The foreign relations of Switzerland at this period 
enriched, as we have seen, individual families, but in 
no degree conduced to the well-being of the country. 
The councils of the Helvetic body were -continually 
occupied with regulations regarding the enlistments in 
foreign services. About this time nearly 25,000 Swiss 
were in the pay of foreigners. 

The distresses and embarrassments of various descrip- 
tions, incident to the warlike times of which we have 
been treating, had unfavourable effects upon the culture 
of science. An artificial taste, as well in thought as in 



1648. 



PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 



247 



style, became prevalent. Astrology, and faith in super- 
natural signs, in general retained their hold almost unL 
versally. As men imagine easily enough that they see and 
hear that which they desire should be imparted to them, 
or that which they are at any time engrossed with, swords 
and other appearances in the heavens were often visible. 
How fragmentary and limited in those times was the 
knowledge possessed even by distinguished men, may be 
judged by the fact, that one of the most eminent Swiss 
diplomatists, employed in the Westphalian negotiation, 
was obliged to ask the French plenipotentiary, Longue- 
ville, whether French troops could not go by land to 
Portugal without being obliged to pass through Spain ! 



CHAP. XVL 

THE PEASANT WAR. 

1653—1656. 

INSURRECTION OF THE PEASANTRY IN BERNE, LUCERNE, SOLEURE, 
AND BASLE. 

There was very little harmony in the sentiments with 
which the declaration of Helvetic independence was 
received in different parts of the confederacy. Many 
viewed the matter with indifference, and regarded it, 
though only recently recognised, as something which had 
long been possessed. Political emancipation brought 
about no respite of religious dissension ; and new mat- 
ter of embroilment was now added to the old feud be- 
tween catholics and protestants. 

Much discontent prevailed at this time among the 
country people of more than one of the cantons that 
many valleys remained in feudal servitude, or at least 
were still subject to feudal burdens. When these 

r 4 



248 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1653. 



people compared their own condition with that of Uri, 
Schwytz, and Unterwalden, whose inhabitants were sub- 
ject to no laws and no authority but such as they had 
given themselves, and to no taxes but such as they 
themselves had imposed, they felt the more deeply 
their own condition as purchased bondsmen and subjects 
of the towns, liable to taxes and imposts without their 
own consent being asked, and loaded with laws and 
duties without their wishes being consulted. But they 
felt still more vexation on being forced to yield, in 
all points, to proud land-vogts, and rapacious men in 
office; when they were struck for mere trifles, ill- 
treated, and incarcerated ; or impoverished by exorbitant 
and arbitrary fines. Complaints against influential and 
official men were of little use, and had often fatal re- 
sults to the complainant ; as relations of tlie land- 
vogts, for the most part, sat in the government. Nay, 
even secretaries, sub-vogts, and inferior officers, acted as 
if they might persecute and plague the boors with im- 
punity. Yet, as the evil was not every where felt 
equally, and many just and good functionaries still 
were to be found in the land, every thing for a while 
remained quiet. 

It was not, however, only in the free bailiwicks that 
the people had long complained of the oppressions and 
extortions of many among the land-vogts and other 
functionaries, particularly those from the democratic 
cantons, — but even in the immediate domains cf the 
ruling towns an oppressive system of government was 
introduced, which was rendered yet more burdensome 
by arbitrary assumptions. Actual necessities, and the 
example of larger states, had occasioned the imposition 
of new taxes ; and, since the recognition of Swiss inde- 
pendence, many men in office considered themselves 
to stand in a more elevated position with regard to 
those whom they looked upon as their subjects. Fre- 
quent complaints were made of severe corporal punish- 
ments, of exorbitant and arbitrary fines, — sometimes 



1653. 



CAUSES OF DISCONTENT. 



249 



even of actual snares being set for wealthy persons. 
An aristocratic government is tottering towards its fall, 
when those who preside in it have lost the power, or 
the will, to keep in check the malversations of the official 
tools under them. 

When the government of Berne made an effort to 
improve its currency by excluding the small coins of 
other cantons from its territory, and lowered by one 
half the nominal value of its own batzen, discontent was 
spread throughout the whole canton ; the more so as 
the poorer classes suffered most by the change. The 
people held assemblies in the villages ; and every one 
brought his own particular wrong to swell the aggre- 
gate. One complained of the tyranny of the land- 
vogt, another of the government salt-monopoly, a third 
of that of gunpowder, a fourth of the corporation re- 
strictions, a fifth of the feudal burdens, — one and 
all of the contempt of justice. The more the people 
spoke, the more their heads became heated. 

Such was the moment selected by the government of 
Lucerne to lower the value of its batzen in like manner. 
Upon this the commune of Entlibuch sent delegates 
to the town, and prayed that either the coin should be 
left at its original value, or that agricultural produce 
should be taken in payment instead of it. But their 
petition was so harshly received, that they returned 
home in a state of great discouragement. This height- 
ened the existing discontent ; and when the collectors 
made their appearance, they were driven back with 
insult. On this the avoyer Dulliker came to Entlibuch, 
accompanied by secular and spiritual dignitaries, to 
remonstrate with the elders of the communes. But 
the able-bodied men from all the villages now gathered 
together, armed with spears and clubs, bearing in their 
van a white banner, followed by three youths who blew 
alp-horns ; and behind them three others in old Swiss 
costume, representing the men of Rutli ; and, lastly, the 
whole body, 1400 strong. In this order the procession 



250 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1653. 



arrived at Dorf, where the delegates of the towns w r ere 
assembled : and here was renewed the clamour about the 
calling in of the coinage, the raised interest of money, the 
fines imposed by the land-vogts, &c. ; so that the delegates 
could effect nothing, but made their way back to the town. 
But the country people held assemblies, posted guards, 
searched all travellers, encouraged the neighbouring sub- 
jects of Berne to join them ; and the ten baili wicks of 
the district swore to a solemn league at Wollhausen. 

When matters became thus serious, the six catholic 
cantons sent ambassadors to offer mediation. But when 
these met the delegates of the ten jurisdictions at Wil- 
lisau, who had committed to writing seven and twenty 
articles of grievance, the tumults recommenced among the 
peasantry; the confederate envoys were arrested and placed 
under strict guard; the principal passes towards the town 
were occupied ; and Lucerne itself was threatened with an 
inroad. But the lesser cantons speedily despatched 400 
men to garrison and defend the town : Zurich and Berne 
likewise commenced warlike preparations. When this 
became known to the people of the ten jurisdictions, their 
courage fell; they liberated the captive envoys, and 
begged for their mediation : which was equitably afforded 
them in the shape of a written award, which smoothed 
over the principal grounds of dispute between the parties. 

While all was now supposed to be settled, the storm 
broke out afresh in the canton of Berne, from Thun as 
far as the town of Brugg : for w 7 hen the government 
here attempted to call the country people out against 
those of Lucerne, they answered, i( No, we will not 
march against our brothers ; for we have as many rights 
to reclaim, and wrongs to complain of, as they \" In 
all the villages, clamour and disorder had the upper 
hand. Every one would command — no one obey. 
Berne invoked the aid of the confederacy to quell this 
insurrection. Schaffhausen, Basle, and Mulhausen sent 
military aid instantly. Zurich and Lucerne, however, 
advised friendly arbitration ; to which the government of 



1653. 



SOFT AND HARD ONES. 



251 



Berne at length acceded. Before they had come to any 
understandings the forces of Schaffhausen had entered 
the Bernese territory at Bragg, those of Basle and Mul- 
hausen at Aarau. This embittered the people in the 
Aargau; and a levy en masse was proclaimed throughout 
the whole county of Lentzburg. 

The disturbance now took an aspect of importance. 
The peasants besieged the castles of the land-vogts ; sent 
commissioners to the government of Berne ; and even had 
recourse for foreign succours to Laberde, the French 
ambassador. This step did grievous injury to their 
cause ; for the ambassador himself betrayed their over- 
tures ; and the hearts of many well-intentioned persons 
were now turned from them, since they had sought fo- 
reign arbitrement in the cause of their native country. 
Many persons, especially among the wealthier class, pre- 
served their allegiance to the constituted authorities : 
these were nick-named soft, and the antagonist party 
hard ones. Many adherents of the governments had 
their beards, others their ears, cut off. In the district 
of Basle, a person of that description had his ear cut off 
and placed in his hand, with the remark, that he was 
now indeed an ear-hearer (tale-bearer). The heads of 
others were held close to grind-stones, which were then 
set in motion, so that hair and scalp came off together; 
in order, as it was said, to harden them. 

In the mean time appeared delegates from the six re- 
formed cantons in Berne, in order to bring to a friendly 
arbitration all disputes between the authorities and their 
subjects. The commissioners of the revolted com- 
munes co-operated for this purpose : and it was finally 
decided that the government should retain the salt- 
monopoly — the subject the right of freely purchasing 
salt for his private use wherever he chose ; that corporate 
restrictions should be abolished; the batzen remain 
still at a depreciated value, &c. All this and more 
being satisfactorily settled, the commissioners of the 
communes sued for pardon on their knees before the 



252 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1653. 



town- council of Berne, and all seemed peaceably ad- 
justed. 

But the peasantry in Lucerne now raised a new cla- 
mour, and said they could not acknowledge their league 
of WoUhausen as punishable, as it was treated in the 
recent declaration. They also sent forth emissaries to 
the subjects of the other cantons, who every where pro- 
claimed that they would no longer be vassals of the 
towns, but free people, as those of the lesser cantons 
were. The people in the Aargau and the Emmenthal 
joined them; and upbraided the commissioners who had 
prostrated themselves before the council of Berne, and 
had accepted the agreement. In the cantons of Soleure 
and Basle, also, many country people rose and avowed 
their adhesion to the men of Lucerne, Emmenthal, and 
Aargau. In the Sumiswald they held land-assemblies, 
and elected Nicholas Leuenberger, a countryman of 
Schonholz, to preside over the league of the four can- 
tons of Lucerne, Berne, Basle, and Soleure. 

As in the old times the counts and barons had freed 
themselves from the power of the emperor, and had as- 
serted their own hereditary jurisdiction in their do- 
mains ; and as, at a later date, the large towns of Swit- 
zerland, favoured by fortune and by circumstances, had 
purchased emancipation from the power of the old 
counts and barons ; so the subject peasants were now 
in arms to vindicate a share of freedom equal to that of 
the towns. But their enterprise was calculated badly. 
These furious mobs neither went to work with the pious 
uprightness and strict union displayed of old by the 
men of the forest cantons, nor with the prudence and 
deliberate resolution of the towns. They were rude 
unknowing people, inexperienced in state affairs, mis- 
trustful of each other, and each sharper set on his own 
than on the general advantage. They listened with 
more willingness to ranting declaimers than to the 
counsel of intelligent men ; and they were very soon 
found to be divided among themselves, and prepared for 
every species of extravagance. 



1653. LEVIES AGAINST THE INSURGENTS. 253 

Meanwhile the towns prepared themselves to quell 
the revolters, while they continued to negotiate with 
them in order to gain time : yet Berne and the diet at 
Baden meant more fairly by the people. Many con- 
ferences were planned or held with the delegates of the 
insurgents ; but no treaty could be brought to bear 
with furious hordes, on whose resolutions no sort of de- 
pendence could be placed from day to day. 

All overtures being in vain, Zurich, then the prin- 
cipal canton, summoned the whole confederate forces 
into the field. Berne called out the troops of the Pays 
de Vaud, — which, by its language, had been held apart 
from the cause of the German subjects, — and nominated 
Sigismund of Erlach to the command. He had about 
10,000 men under his orders. From the catholic can- 
tons came about 5000, led by the colonel Zueyer ; the 
rest of the confederates, to the number of 10,000, were 
commanded by the Zurich field-marshal Wertmiiller. 
The free peasantry of the lesser cantons stoutly supported 
the towns in asserting their cause against the revolted 
populace ; for they, too, were possessed of subject 
bailiwicks. 

However, the revolters also were speedily under arms. 
But they had neither heavy artillery nor military stores, 
nor discipline, nor leaders of experience ; since the 
posts of command had hitherto been exclusively held by 
burghers. 

As soon as Leuenberger, the chief of the leagued 
burghers, Schybi, Ulli Galli, and the other heads of 
the insurrection, saw that the game would be played 
in earnest, they endeavoured to put the best face on 
their perilous enterprise, partly by airs of defiance, 
partly by renewed negotiations. From his camp at 
Ostermundigen, a league from Berne, where his 
troops robbed and plundered all around them, Leuen- 
berger once more wrote to Berne to propose a peaceable 
settlement of the contest. The council at Berne, to 
avoid the shedding of bloody actually sent ambassadors 



254 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1653. 



to the insurgents ; and offered a large subsidy of 15,000/. 
to the peasants : not, however, as an indemnity for their 
war expenses, but as succour and relief to their poverty. 
The insurgent delegates finally subscribed the very 
composition which had already once before been re- 
jected by them ; and again promised loyalty and al- 
legiance. But they had hardly returned to their camp 
when all their labours were rendered null and void : 
for, as the confederates had taken up arms, the insur- 
gents would not lay down theirs till their antagonists 
should have drawn off their troops likewise. 

General Erlach marched from Berne on Langen- 
thalj and in his way dispersed a body of 2000 pea- 
sants. On the plain before Herzogenbuchsee, he found 
a guard of six peasants armed with halberts. These 
assured him the rebels were all dispersed ; but, as he 
rode with his followers towards the town, shot after 
shot saluted them. He now saw the insurgent bands 
suddenly before him w T ho had occupied the neighbour- 
ing wood, and he charged them on three sides at once. 

Now began a desperate conflict. The insurgents, 
soon overpowered, defended step by step their retreat to 
the village. While a part of it was burning at their 
backs, they fought in the houses, and then behind the 
walls of the church. Finally, they dispersed and fled 
through the woods. 

Instead of the sounds of uproar and defiance, the 
silence of death, remorse, and terror now prevailed in all 
the villages. The districts were disarmed ; the leaders 
imprisoned. At Zofingen the confederate council of 
war sat, and held courts martial. Schybi w r as trans- 
ported thither from Entlibuch, and beheaded. Leuen- 
berger, betrayed in his own house by his neighbours 
and comrades, was imprisoned at Berne, where he was 
shortly after executed, and his bloody head affixed to 
the gallows beside the insurgent covenant. His secre- 
tary, Brosmer, died in like manner ; and Ulli Galli w T as 
hanged. At Basle, seven old men, with snow-white 



INSURRECTION SUPPRESSED. 



255 



beards, were sentenced to death as having taken part in 
the insurrection. Of the others, some were sentenced 
to death, some to banishment, others to fines. Thus 
the free bailiwicks had to pay 10,000 guilders; the 
people of the -county of Lentzburg, 20,000 ; the men of 
Soieure, 30,000 ; and others in proportion : and the 
emperor Ferdinand III. proclaimed a sentence of out- 
lawry against the fugitive insurgents through the whole 
Roman empire. 

All members of the Helvetic body might by this time 
have convinced themselves, that nothing but internal 
union could save them in times of threatened danger, 
whether from within or without. The most decisive 
experience of this truth l^ad been afforded by the inci- 
dents of the recent insurrection. It had been seen with 
what facility the insurgents of both religions had agreed 
upon a common form of compact and conspiracy ; an 
agreement which, for many generations, their rulers had 
been unable to bring to pass. This spectacle revived 
the wish to infuse renewed vigour into the league of the 
confederacy. The evangelical party gave utterance to 
this wish in 1654 ; and it was undertaken to mould the 
former alliances into one general instrument. But as, 
in politics, important matters are often treated slightly 
when once they have become things of habit, so slight 
matters are swelled into importance when any thing of a 
novel nature is brought under discussion. The older 
cantons would not give up the prerogatives which they 
enjoyed over those which had been received into the 
league at a later period. Moreover, it did not escape 
the penetration of the catholics that their close con- 
nections amongst themselves, and with foreign powers, 
must yield to the more comprehensive bond of the con- 
federacy. Many popular leaders feared the loss of the 
most fruitful sources of gain in their vocation. And thus, 
for the present, no re-union was possible. 

Meanwhile the foreign policy of the two religious 
parties took directions diametrically opposite. The 



256 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1656. 



evangelicals allowed no nice scruples to deter them 
from mixing in foreign interests to promote those of 
protestantism. The then English government (that of 
Cromwell) paid extraordinary honours to the envoys of 
the protestant cantons. In 1654, they made, by word 
and writings the most urgent intercessions at the court 
of Turin for the persecuted TTaldenses; contributed 
for them 18 ,,000 florins; spoke at length of the 
possibility of resorting to armed intervention : and 
it was principally through their aid, with that of 
England and Holland, that a treaty of toleration was 
closed at Pignerol, when the French minister, Mazarin, 
who had originally instigated these persecutions, ceased 
to give his support to the cause of Savoy. 

In the following year, the catholic cantons renewed 
their league with the bishop of Basle. The contracting 
parties not only promised each other active assistance in 
cases of religion, and in every other just cause, but aisa 
equal division of all conquests made in common ; a 
clause which seemed to point at the domains of the 
protestant cantons, as conquests over the neighbouring 
great powers could not be dreamed of. Still more dis- 
quieting for the protestants was the renewal of the Bor- 
romean league by the catholic cantons, 



1656. 



PROTESTANTS AND CATHOLICS. 



257 



CHAP. XVII. 

RELIGIOUS WAR AND WAR OF TOGGENBURG. 

1656— -1718. 

RELIGIOUS WAR. BATTLE OF VILLMERGEN. THE PLAGUE.— 

USURPATIONS OF THE ABBOT OF ST. GALL OVER THE PEOPLE OF 

TOGGENBURG. CONDUCT OF SCHWYTZ AND GLARUS - — OF 

BERNE.— -WAR OF TOGGENBURG, FLIGHT OF ABBOT LEODEGAR. 

TOGGENBURGERS AIM AT INDEPENDENCE WHICH IS 

REFUSED THEM. SURPRISAL OF THE BERNESE TROOPS BY 

ACKERMANN OF UNTERWALDEN. SECOND ACTION AT VILL- 
MERGEN. PEACE OF AARAU. HOSTILE INTERFERENCE OF 

THE POPE AND HIS NUNCIO. REPRISALS OF THE HELVETIC 

BODYr 

Scarcely was the foregoing insurrection well disposed 
of, when a new dispute broke out among the cantons of 
the confederacy. 

This was a fresh manifestation of that unchristian 
hatred which prevailed between protestants and catho- 
lics. The clergy on both sides, instead of extinguishing 
the flame of discord, blew it up by their preaching. 

There never were wanting occasions of dispute among 
the governments, especially in the common or free baili- 
wicks, where each contended exclusively for its own 
creed and its own jurisdiction ; and none reposed con- 
fidence any longer in their colleagues, as none would 
believe any thing but evil of the rest. The catholics 
would not believe that Berne and Zurich built fortifi- 
cations, and entered into alliances with Holland and 
witn England, for nothing. The protestants com- 
plained of the catholics, for confirming the Borromean 
league, renewing their alliances with Savoy and the 
bishop of Basle, and keeping up relations of close amity 
with the court of Spain. 

It happened that six families of Arth, in the canton 
of Schwytz, were obliged to fly for holding the evange- 

s 



258 



HIST OK Y OF SWITZERLAND. 



1656. 



lical persuasion, as their lives were hardly safe in their 
native village. They presented themselves with tears 
and prayers before the council of Zurich, and only 
begged that the free transport of their property might 
be procured for them. Upon this the council of Zurich 
addressed pressing intercessions to Schwytz in behalf of 
these persecuted people ; but Schwytz refused to listen to 
their overtures, and demanded the surrender of the 
persons of the refugees. When upon this the reformed 
cantons appealed to the rights of the confederacy, Schwytz 
replied : " Within our own land we owe no account to 
any one, except to God and to ourselves/' Moreover, 
they confiscated the goods of the emigrants, threw their 
relatives (as they also were of the protestant persuasion) 
into prison, put some of them to the torture, and con- 
demned others to death. 

Zurich now took up arms, as all admonition and 
mediation from the neutral cantons at diets had been 
useless. With equal celerity, Schwytz and the catholic 
cantons were in the field. Zurich, supported by Basle, 
Mulhausen, and Schaffhausen, marched troops towards 
the Rhine, occupied the Thurgau, and besieged R,ap- 
perswyl. But the catholics had already occupied Rap- 
perswyl and the Albis, as well as Bremgarten, Meliingen, 
and Baden, and the Brunigberg, on the side of Berne. 
The Bernese sent detachments to the defence of Frey- 
burg, Soleure, and Unterwalden, and marched to Lentz- 
burg with forty banners to the succour of the Zurichers. 

There was, however, nothing like discipline in the 
ranks of the reformers. They sacked and burned 
wherever they came, pillaged the monastery of Rhei- 
nau, plundered villages and churches, and drove off the 
cattle. So little order was preserved by the Bernese, 
that they encamped in the district of Villmergen, with- 
out troubling themselves at all about the enemy ; sent 
out no scouts ; and were not even provided with sufficient 
ammunition. And although some men of the Aargau 
had descried the enemy by the village of Wohlen, and 
gave the alarm to the Bernese ; yet no attention was paid 



1656. 



BATTLE OF VILL3IERGEN. 



2^9 



to them, as some young gentlemen of Berne had ridden 
out to reconnoitre and assured that all was safe. 

More than 4000 men of Lucerne,, in effect, lay in am- 
bush on the heights of Wohleri. From a ridge in the 
hollow way, where they were covered up to the waist, 
they suddenly opened a fire on the Bernese lines. These 
fell into such panic and confusion that they could hardly 
be formed in order of battle. As powder and ball were 
deficient, they discharged only two rounds from their 
field pieces ; the rout was general. Ten fresh squadrons, 
indeed, came to their aid ; but those wheeled about and 
took to flight along with the rest. The general of Lu- 
cerne had in his pocket during the action a letter from 
his government containing an order not to fight, as a 
peaceable arrangement was in progress : but he put it 
up unopened, as he could guess at the contents, and pur- 
sued the flying Bernese, of whom a vast number were 
cut to pieces. They lost about 800 men, and eleven 
pieces of heavy artillery. A strong body of Bernese 
troops were posted in the neighbourhood, and saw the 
flight of their countrymen towards Lentzburg, but did 
not leave their position, not having orders. 

Such was the fatal battle of Villmergen. The victors 
lay encamped, exulting, three days on the field of battle ; 
they then marched homewards, loaded with plunder. 
A few weeks afterwards an armistice, and finally a 
peace, were concluded. For as, during warfare, the trans- 
port of the necessaries of life was suspended with regard 
to the lesser cantons, and as the government of Lucerne 
could as little as that of Berne repose confidence in its 
own discontented peasantry, it was the interest of all 
sides to put a speedy end to the war, which, though it 
lasted only nine weeks, had already cost the Zurichers 
above 414,000 florins. The pacification restored things 
to their previous situation. In matters of religion, and 
with regard to freedom of transit for goods between one 
canton and another, each canton retained the power of 
acting in its own domain at its own pleasure. 

The catholics might have taken even greater advan- 

s 9. 



260 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. l66'4, 

tage of the wretched state of discipline in the protestant 
cantons, if their own war department had been conducted 
at all better. Peace was now restored without the spirit 
of peace. Both sides were exhausted; but the damage 
done reciprocally remained without compensation, and 
the minds of both parties were embittered more than 
ever. This was visible every where, and chiefly in 
the common bailiwicks. In these, what hurt the one 
pleased the others ; and the populace exhibited their 
unchristian zeal Gf doctrine according to the example 
of their rulers. It lacked but a slight impulse to oc- 
casion a renewal of warfare. 

An officer of Lucerne, who had levied troops for the ser- 
vice of Spain, marched them through the Thurgau, and 
led them, with drawn sabres, into the protestant church of 
Ripperswyl. From thence a woman pursued them with 
curses and horrible cries to Wigoldingen, where the 
population w T ere speedily up in arms on the Spanish 
soldiers, five of whom were slain, some wounded, and 
others taken prisoners. This event called up the re- 
formed and catholic cantons in arms. Troops were 
levied; the five catholic cantons immediately occupied 
Kaisers tuhl, Mellingen, and Bremgarten. Much debate 
and negotiation followed. The catholic cantons were 
not to be pacified save by blood. Two men of Wigold- 
ingen were sentenced to death by the majority of the 
cantons, which exercised sovereignty over the Thurgau, 
notwithstanding Zurich's urgent solicitations for their 
pardon. The commune of Wigoldingen being sentenced 
to pay the whole expenses of the lengthened dispute, 
collections were made in aid of that object in all the 
churches of Zurich. 

Similar disputes were very frequent in these times; 
and persecutions on account of faith were practised 
without mercy. Thus sorrow and distress were in- 
troduced into many households. Contagious sickness 
next was added to all the other sources of misery, which 
carried off numbers, especially in Basle and in the 
Aargau. The season had been unhealthy, and warm 



1667. 



DISPUTES IN TOGGENBURG. 



261 



during almost the whole winter. Venomous worms and 
caterpillars covered trees, grass, and fruits; and water 
and field mice appeared in greater numbers than had 
before been known. This continued till the year came 
to an end, and a hard winter followed. 

Many of the Swiss, though called free, were poor 
subjects, possessed of fewer rights than those of kings ; 
nay, force and fraud were often used without scruple to 
extirpate, little by little, the few franchises of the people, 
that the power of their lords might luxuriate without 
limits* 

The people had a special experience of this in the 
district of Toggenburg. In former times, through the 
favour of the old counts of Toggenburg, the communes 
had enjoyed important privileges in this district — par- 
ticipation in the appointment of the higher and lower 
courts of justice, and in general assemblies called to 
consult upon the military and civil administration. No 
land-vogt, moreover, could be imposed on them but by 
election from amongst the native inhabitants. 

But the abbots of St. Gall having purchased of the 
barons of Raron the jurisdiction over the land which 
the latter had acquired by inheritance from the old 
counts of Toggenburg ; the new possessors aimed in 
their turn at privileges, which, far from having pur- 
chased, they had formally acknowledged to belong to 
the people. And in like manner as the people of 
Toggenburg had set up, for the protection of their 
freedom, a common-law jurisdiction with the cantons of 
Schwytz and Glarus ; so, in 146*9; the abbot also esta- 
blished a defensive league with the same cantons, for 
the maintenance of his territorial rights. As his abbacy 
was connected with the confederacy, and he himself 
bore the title of prince of the holy Roman empire, he 
always knew how to take advantage of his twofold 
title. He opposed himself to the emperor, when it 
suited him, in his quality of confederate ; to the con- 
federates as prince of the empire, and delegate of inw 

s 3 



262 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1654. 



perial majesty; and thus he made his double character 
stand him in good stead. 

He now began to speak of the freedom of Toggenburg 
in ambiguous terms, and went so far as to call the 
people his vassals,, in order to accustom them to become 
such. At last he attacked their franchises openly, and 
much debate took place before the diets of the confederacy. 
These, however, seconded his pretensions. Thus he first 
obtained appellate jurisdiction from all tribunals in the 
country to his own court; then he assumed the right 
of choosing a foreigner for land-vogt, of holding the un- 
checked administration of church property, preserves, 
and fisheries ; in addition to these, he set up a claim of 
appointing the priest in every church, and conferring 
the rights of citizenship at his pleasure. Lastly, the 
people were prohibited from holding assemblies ; and 
the war administration of the country fell, in 1654, en- 
tirely into the abbot's hands. Now he domineered at 
pleasure, assented to compulsory enlistments in foreign 
services, filled all places with his creatures, and re- 
garded with indifference the appropriation of the best 
lands to monasteries through methods the most fraudulent. 

At length, the abbot Leodegar considered himself ab- 
solute lord in the land; he commanded the people to 
make, and to maintain, at their own cost, a new highway 
through the Hummelwald ; and when the delegates of 
the people dared to remonstrate that this would be a 
burthen more oppressive than had formerly been the 
feudal services from which they had already bought them- 
selves free, he condemned them to a heavy fine, to public 
recantation, and he declared them disarmed and dis- 
honoured. 

The oppressed Toggenburgers now brought their com- 
plaints before Schwytz and Glarus. Glarus took the dis- 
tress of the poor peasantry to heart, as also did Schwytz, 
although the Toggenburgers professed the reformed faith. 
(( And even though they were Turks and heathens," cried 
the Schwytzers in the general assembly, " they are never- 
theless our countrymen and confederates, and we should 



1703. 



WAR OF TOGGENBURG. 



263 



help them to assert their rights." This incensed the abbot, 
who appealed to all the cantons in behalf of his con- 
federate rights. Now came diet upon diet, from year 
to year. Many were well inclined towards the Toggen- 
burgers, on account of their reformed and oppressed 
faith ; many hostile to the abbot, for having shortly 
before closed a defensive alliance with Austria, and for 
appearing to regard the county of Toggenburg as a .fief 
held of the emperor and the empire. The longer the 
quarrel lasted, the more perplexed, of course, became the 
matter out of which it arose. At length the old religious 
hatred threw in its venom ; for so soon as Schwytz 
and the other catholic cantons perceived that Zurich and 
Berne afforded assistance to the Toggenburgers chiefly 
on the ground of their common faith, and encouraged 
them to stand fast for their old rights, Schwytz became 
better inclined to the abbot of St. Gall. This, however, 
did not deter Zurich and Berne from their purpose, or 
the citizens of Toggenburg from the exercise of their 
franchises. The imperial envoy now stepped in with a 
missive from his court, of which the purport was that 
the emperor would settle the affair, as the county of 
Toggenburg had indubitably, from time immemorial, 
been a fief of the empire ; but Zurich and Berne replied, 
that Toggenburg lay within the Swiss frontier, and that 
the abbot of St. Gall had long acknowledged them as 
arbitrators. Moreover, the ambassadors of Holland and 
the kings of England and Prussia encouraged the men 
of Zurich and Berne in resistance to the emperor. 

The matter of dispute became more and more in- 
definite, and tumult and violence now arose in Tog- 
genburg itself. The abbot adhered stiffly to the main- 
tenance of his usurped power. The Toggenburgers 
refused obedience, and drove away his functionaries ; 
whereupon the abbot posted troops on all the bridges, 
roads, and passes in the district of St. Gall. Bailiff 
Durler, in Lucerne, the most zealous friend of the abbot, 
called the catholic cantons out, to keep in check the 
rebels of Toggenburg. On the other hand, the mayor 

s 4 



264 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



-1712- 



of Berne, Willading, exhorted the reformed cantons to 
appeal without delay to the sword, for the old rights of 
the people of Toggenburg and the safety of the protestant 
church. 

So soon as the men of Toggenburg saw that Zurich 
and Berne stood on their side, and that general Bodmer 
was on his march from Zurich to their aid, with a 
force of nearly 3000 men, they proclaimed war for the 
maintenance of their rights against the abbot. Rabholz, 
an eminent member of the government of Zurich, became 
their leader, as he had before been their friend and coun- 
sellor, proclaimed a levy en masse, and engaged the 
abbot's myrmidons as vigorously with the sword as he 
had already done with the pen. The abbot's cloisters 
and castles were besieged, and the troops of Zurich 
ravaged the whole district of St. Gall without the slightest 
restraint of order or discipline. 

Now also Lucerne, Uri, Schwytz, Unterwalden, and 
Zug took up arms, advanced on Toggenburg, and oc- 
cupied the county of Baden. The nuncio gave them 
26,000 thalers out of the papal treasury ; and in Rome 
prayers were offered up to the saints for their success. 
Consecrated bullets and amulets were distributed by the 
priests to the soldiers. Berne, on her part, raised ] 0,000 
crowns from her own treasury, and brought 15,000 men 
into the field. A Bernese force advanced against the 
Stilli, crossed the Aar, and joined the forces of Zurich at 
Wurelingen : these, at the same time, had taken pos- 
session of the whole Thurgau. 

Under these circumstances, Glarus and Soleure remained 
neutral, as likewise did the bishop of Constance. Basle 
and Freyburg lamented this civil contest between Swiss 
and Swiss, and once more exhorted both sides to an 
amicable agreement ; but the admonition came too late. 
The abbot of St. Gall transported his valuables to Lindau, 
betook himself to Rosbach, and applied to the town of 
St. Gall and to the territory of Appenzell and Glarus 
for assistance ; but they promised him nothing further 
than their neutrality. The emperor, on the other hand, 



1712. 



FLIGHT OF ABBOT LEODEGAR.- 



265 



summoned the circle of Swabia, as far as Presburgj in 
Hungary, to the assistance of the abbot. 

Meanwhile, the brave Rabholz had marched into the 
old abbey -lands ; the banners of Berne and Zurich went 
victoriously through the whole Thurgau, as far as the 
town of St. Gall : they there placed a garrison in the 
abbey, and at Rosbach. The panic-struck abbot had 
already taken refuge for himself and his valuables at 
Augsburg. 

The Toggenburgers, now that their cause was vic- 
torious, condemned those of the abbot's people to death 
who had acted the part of betrayers towards them ; they 
threw off the abbot's dominion altogether, as well as the 
connection with Schwytz and Glarus, and proposed to 
the people of Gaster, Uznach, and others to found a 
free and independent state, like the cantons of the con- 
federacy ; and they planned a new constitution, which 
they brought before the diet at Aarau. But such lan- 
guage displeased the leaders of Berne and Zurich, as 
they would rather have had the Toggenburgers for sub- 
jects than for fellow- confederates : even Rabholz, the 
zealous champion of the Toggenburg cause, declined to 
second the wishes of the people, although they offered 
him large sums of money to do so. 

Meanwhile infinite wrath and discord prevailed in the 
catholic cantons. Some were for peace, others for war. 
The French and Austrian ambassadors promised assist- 
ance; the pope sent money; Freyburg and Soleure 
espoused their cause with the Valais, and the whole 
catholic portion of the bailiwicks. But those reformed 
districts, on the other hand, which had hitherto remained 
quiet, threatened to take up arms ; and ail of that per- 
suasion in the common bailiwicks actually did take up 
arms in support of Zurich and Berne. Thus, at this time, 
nearly 150,000 Swiss stood arrayed for mortal conflict 
with each other : at no former period had the confederacy 
taken the field in equal force against a foreign enemy. 
And so it happened, that one sword kept another in the 
scabbard. 



266 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1712. 



While the envoys of the confederacy sat at Aarau 
and treated of peace, the land-vogt and knight Acker- 
mann of Unterwalden marched with 5000 men upon 
the hridge of Sins, where the forces of Berne lay in 
their encampment. The priest of Sins, on a previous 
understanding with Ackermann, had given a banquet to 
the leaders of the Bernese, in order to lull their vigilance. 
They w r ere thus taken by surprise, so that they saved 
themselves with difficulty. Many of the Bernese were 
slain. Their leader, Meunier, who, with 200 men, de- 
fended himself valiantly, first in the churchyard and 
then in the church, was obliged at last to give himself 
and his men up as prisoners : they would infallibly have 
been cut down without mercy, had not Ackermann, with 
generous boldness, curbed those blood-thirsty men. The 
Schwytzers had moreover pressed forwards, in the direc- 
tion of Hutten and Bellenschanz, towards the Lake of 
Zurich. There, however, they came upon Hans Wert- 
miiller, the vigilant commander of Zurich. Seven hours 
long the Schwytzers fought — they lost 200 men ; but 
they were finally compelled to yield to the Zurichers. 
Among their slain were found consecrated tickets, with 
numbers, and crosses, and assurances of victory. 

Knight Ackermann drew catholic reinforcements 
around him from all quarters. His troops were above 
12,000 strong. He marched with vigour through the 
land by Muri to Wohleh and Villmergen, where the 
Bernese stood with 8000 men. Here, in the same 
region where the Bernese once before had suffered a 
bloody defeat from the catholic cantons, in 1 656, the 
turf was again to be reddened with Swiss blood shed by 
Swiss hands. It was the 25th of July, 1712. The 
Bernese had taken position near Meiengriin. The 
thunder of artillery opened the conflict. Six long 
hours the struggle was protracted. At length the 
Bernese brought confusion and panic among the cham- 
pions of the catholic cantons, broke their ranks and 
put them to flight. The plain was strewed with the 
corpses of above 2000 catholics. 



1712. 



PEACE OF AARAU. 



267 



The Toggen burgers now having gained possession of 
Uznach and Gaster, the town of Rapperswy] being sur- 
rendered to the Zurichers, and the conquerors having 
pressed from all sides into the catholic territory:, their 
antagonists at length became intimidated,, and begged 
for peace. 

Already had the cantons of Lucerne and Uri sub- 
scribed to the terms of peace at the diet in Aarau ; but 
the peasantry of the former canton, incited by the papal 
nuncio, as well as by their own priests and monks, 
would not hear of peace, but had marched against the 
town to force the government into hostilities, and from 
thence against the Bernese at Villmergen. Here they 
had rushed on merited destruction. 

The general peace of the country was at length 
concluded at Aarau, on terms of course advantageous to 
the victors. The five catholic cantons were not only 
compelled to cede their rights over Baden, Rapperswyl, 
and the lower bailiwicks, in favour of Zurich and Berne, 
but, besides, to take these two preponderant cantons into 
partnership of dominion over the Thurgau and the 
Rheinthal, where both religious parties from thence- 
forward exercised equal rights. Glarus remained exclu- 
sively in the possession of Berne and Zurich. 

The humbled abbot Leodegar of St. Gall would not, 
however, accept the terms of pacification ; and conse- 
quently remained, to the day of his death, in obstinate 
exile. Meanwhile the troops of Berne and Zurich 
occupied his lands. But when the new abbot, Joseph, 
in 171 8, accepted the above mentioned terms of peace in 
Rosbach, his lands were restored, and the Toggen- 
burgers placed once more in subjection to him ; but 
with augmented rights and franchises, under the gua- 
rantee of Berne and Zurich. The pope and his nuncio 
only persisted in rejecting the peace of Aarau, declaring 
it altogether null and void. This, however, troubled 
the reconciled confederates but little : and when the 
people in some districts of the canton of Lucerne were 
incited by the clergy against the government, a garrison 



268 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1/13. 



from Entlibuch was taken into the town, a tax on mon- 
asteries demanded of the pope towards covering war 
expenses, and at the same time the recall of the nuncio 
Caracciolli was insisted on, who was denounced as the 
principal promoter of all the mischief. The bitter effects 
of this war were long felt by the catholic cantons, which, 
in carrying it on, had incurred immense expenses. 
Schwytz imposed on every household a tax of five tha- 
lers. Lucerne was compelled to use force in collecting 
her imposts. Uri could only pacify her subjects in the 
Val Levantina by conceding extensive franchises, and 
by designating them thenceforwards as " well-beloved 
and faithful countrymen." 



CHAP. XVIII. 

COURSE OF EY'ENTS DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

1702—1781. 

FOREIGN RELATIONS AND POLICY OF THE HELVETIC BODY AT THE 

BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. JESUIT MISSIONS. 

CONDUCT OF DU LUC THE FRENCH AMEASSADOR. CASE OF 

THOMAS MASSNER OF COIRE. CONSPIRACY OF HENZI AT 

BERNE. INSURRECTION OF CHENAUX AT FREYBL'RG. NEW 

ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. 

On the outbreaking of the war of the Spanish suc- 
cession, the intrigues of foreign ambassadors in Swit- 
zerland occasioned partial ferments and divisions, but 
the confederates kept carefully out of dangerous en- 
tanglements. They aimed exclusively at securing their 
neutrality ; a point in which they succeeded but imper- 
fectly, for the security of their frontiers and communi- 
cations was subjected to frequent interruptions. The 
belligerent powers harassed the Helvetic body with con- 
stant demands, and goaded them to inward dissension. 
Such machinations were only too successful in a state 
which was already making rapid approach to ruin, — in 
which the common weal had ceased to be much regarded ; 



1702. 



RELATIONS WITH FRANCE. 



269 



and every one held himself justified in pursuing his own 
interests in preference to those of his country. 

The relations which subsisted between the Helvetic 
body and France were of a delicate and very peculiar 
nature. The latter power founded an especial claim to 
, gratitude on the permanent employment of Swiss troops 
in her service : the French court thought fit to forget 
that the seeming profits of this connection were bought 
by the confederates at the price of streams of blood, of 
the decay of arts and agriculture, constantly increasing 
moral corruption, and utter extinction of patriotism and 
public spirit. But France only took account of the sums 
of money transmitted to Switzerland, regarded the latter 
country in the light of a sort of province, and treated 
all opposition to her wishes and proceedings as an overt 
act of treason against her majesty. In this spirit the 
French ambassador, count du Luc, expresses himself : — 
iC I had believed that, at least, families loaded by France 
with wealth and honours, must necessarily bear the fleur- 
de-lis traced in their inmost hearts : but I find that this 
nation retains no sense of received benefits ; that token- 
of favour only weigh with those who enjoyed them per- 
sonally ; and do not even influence the sentiments and 
actions of their nearest relations favourably to the in- 
terests of his majesty/' He recommended, by way of 
remedy, to lavish constant good treatment exclusively on 
the pensioners of France, in order that their zeal and 
fidelity may frustrate the resistance of others. In like 
manner, he holds it indispensable that the friends of 
France should, at any expense, be promoted to the first 
official stations in the cantons. Du Luc goes on to ad- 
vise that, in all military promotions, particular attention 
should be paid to the men of the Thirteen Cantons, and 
those of the Valais and the Grisons, who are accustomed 
to regard every step made by others as a robbery com- 
mitted on themselves. For the rest, he says, the whole 
system of policy to be observed with Swiss statesmen 
jnay be expressed in two words : — these gentlemen must 
either be treated with great regard and honour; or fairly 



270 HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1710. 

■crushed, and put out of the power of doing mischief. 
The lengths which France was capable of going, in order 
to strengthen her party in the confederacy, and to win, 
fatigue, " or fairly crush" her opponents, may be judged 
of from the following incident : — 

Thomas Massner of Coire, a man of enormous wealth 
and influence, and who was considered as the head of 
the Austrian party in the Grisons, had made himself 
obnoxious to France by his well-known political con- 
nections. The following plan was adopted by the French 
ambassador, count du Luc, in order cc to deprive him of 
the power of doing mischief." Massner's son, a -lad of 
sixteen, a student at Geneva, was decoyed on a party of 
pleasure into Savoy by the brother of the French agent 
at Coire, kidnapped by the French, and carried off to 
Fort TEcluse. The indignant father meditated active re- 
prisals, and succeeded in obtaining possession of the per- 
son of the French agent at Coire himself, Merveilleux. 
The French ambassador denounced the act as a breach 
of the law of nations; while in the Grisons it passed for 
an equitable, though extra-legal, retaliation. Massner's 
friends compromised the matter, and engaged him to 
liberate his captive, and ask pardon of the French am- 
bassador, on condition that his son should likewise be 
liberated : but Massner having honourably performed his 
part of the treaty, and his son being still detained in 
hopeless captivity, he fell upon new plans of revenge. 
He took prisoner the duke de Vendome, grand prior of 
France, carried him to Feldkirch, and delivered him up 
to the Austrians : this excusable act of vengeance proved 
a seed of much misfortune to Massner. The government 
of the Grisons did its utmost to negotiate the reciprocal 
liberation of the captives. On the demand of France, 
a tribunal was appointed at Ilanz for the trial of Massner, 
who sought his safety in flight. In 171 1^ a sentence of 
outlawry was passed against him ; his property was 
confiscated, his house rased to the ground, and a monu- 
ment of his ignominy erected on its site. Many of his 
partisans were involved in his fall. A thousand ducats 



1714. 



CASE OF MAS5NER. 



271 



were promised fcr him, if delivered alive into the hands 
of justice ; and five hundred ducats for his dead body. 
The outlaw lived for some time under the safeguard of the 
emperor; but his services fell insensibly into oblivion at 
the court of Vienna. Disgrace, disgust, or lingering love 
of country, impelled him at length to quit the Austrian 
territory ; and he wandered for awhile friendless and 
helpless in the district of Glarus : here he was disco- 
vered, and the French ambassador claimed his surrender. 
He lost his life in his flight by the oversetting of his 
carriage. The conclusion of peace between France and 
Austria, in 1714, brought about the liberation of young 
Massner; who was received with exultation by his coun- 
trymen, and loaded with honours and dignities in return 
for his protracted trials. 

The years 1702, and 1705, exhibited a phenomenon 
in Switzerland which our own times have reproduced 
in the countries which adjoin it, with striking if not 
permanent effect. In 1702, two jesuits made their ap- 
pearance, accompanied by other monks as well as by 
several laymen, at Chiavenna in the Swiss territory, 
offering little devotional books and images for sale. They 
pretended to the power of forgiving sins and working 
miracles ; and were received with ready credulity in the 
Valteline, though their pretensions had been laughed at 
in France, in Italy, and even in Spain. They went 
barefoot, slept for only three hours in the night, preached 
and heard confessions in the day time ; they took no salt 
with their food, tasted neither flesh nor wine, began 
their service at break of day with a procession out of 
the town, and in the afternoon preached abundant ab- 
surdities in the town itself, without text or arrangement, 
to a concourse of people from all quarters : they thun- 
dered against vice with ludicrous gestures; and their 
preachments were heard kneeling by the multitude. 
After the close of their discourses, they frequently stripped 
off their upper garments, and with blunt knives, which 
they kept stuck in their girdles, cut their bare backs, 
in such a manner that many sympathetic souls melted 



272 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1702. 



into tears. All these exhibitions were performed in an 
open place, as no church could contain such an assem- 
blage. Their followers, especially those of the clerical 
order, appeared barefoot, with ropes about their necks, 
crowns of thorns upon their heads, some attired in black, 
others in red or white and blue linen, others again with 
their faces covered in coarse sacks which hung to the 
ground. Nocturnal processions also were held, in which 
the penitents carried lanterns on poles, and heavy crosses, 
and flogged themselves with scourges armed with points, 
The preachers declared absolutions and benedictions in- 
effectual with regard to those who did not follow their 
discipline in all points. A large fire kept up beside the 
station of the missionaries was fed, by the devotion of 
their contrite hearers, with packs of cards, seductive 
books, French head-dresses adorned with lace and ri- 
bands, &c. &c. A little brook was blessed by these ad- 
venturers, that its waters might cure fever and flux, 
which happened to be prevalent : for the same purpose, 
consecrated tickets were distributed in the cathedral. One, 
whose wife and children were sick, was commanded by 
these Jesuits, in order to effect their cure, to spend twelve 
days and nights in a wood, without any other aliment 
than herbs arid roots. On returning half alive to his 
home, he found his family cured — by death. The 
people were persuaded, that those who contrived to get 
nearest these missionaries during their processions ob- 
tained immediate entrance to heaven, without passing 
through purgatory : accordingly, as every one was de- 
termined to be nearest, it came to voies de fait; and tu- 
mults took place which could hardly be stilled by the 
influence of the spiritual mountebanks. On their de- 
parture, many followed them for eight or nine leagues 
in sacks, in order to earn the absolution, promised to 
extend to their posterity for twenty years after their 
death. These holy doings lasted till the bishop of Como 
came to take the waters at St. Moritz. This bishop, a 
convivial and card-loving prelate, dispensed the contrite 
sinners from their penitential practices, by virtue of his 



1705. 



JESUIT MISSIONS. 



273 



spiritual authority and example; loose living became 
more universal than ever. " They imagined/' observes 
Hottinger, " that they had fully atoned for their former 
sins, and lost no time in beginning a new score." 

The farce was renewed in 1705. Two jesuit mis- 
sionaries came into the democratical cantons from Italy; 
they preached repentance and remission of sins every 
where in the open air. Innumerable multitudes gathered 
around them. A mob of all ranks followed them about 
from place to place ; and those of their hearers who set 
up for extraordinary devotion appeared in black gar- 
ments^ with robes and chains round their neck and loins : 
but the most devout of all enacted the scenes of the 
crucifixion. They went about barefoot, wearing crowns 
of thorns on their heads, and dragging heavy crosses, 
and allowed themselves to be struck, thrust about, and 
scourged by persons paid for it, misinterpreting, in a 
childish manner, the w T ords of Jesus Christ, — u If any 
one will come after me, let him take up his cross and 
follow me." The missionaries left Switzerland loaded 
with wealth ; and even flattered the pope with the agree- 
able anticipation that the protestant part of Switzerland 
might be led back to the lap of the church. 

The outward peace enjoyed by the confederacy dur- 
ing the eighteenth century (the last of its existence in 
its primitive form) was contrasted by incessant inward 
disturbances. The first of these which claims our at- 
tention is the conspiracy of Henzi at Berne. Here, as 
in most towns of the confederacy, a more and more 
formal and regular aristocracy had grown up by degrees 
in the course of centuries. From time immemorial the 
powers of government had been held by the avoyer and 
council. For the protection of the burghers against the 
encroachments of the council, and of that body against 
the influence of the multitude, an assembly of 200 of 
die most respectable burghers was formed, the mem- 
bers of which were annually elected. The most im- 
portant acts, which imposed duties on every burgher, 
not only for himself but for his posterity, were often 

T 



27 4f HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 1710. 

brought before the whole body of citizens, and even 
country people ; the more so as at that time a few vil- 
lages constituted the whole domain of Berne. The 
continual aggrandisement of the state rendered obsolete 
the fundamental laws of its constitution, which became 
imperceptibly modified in proportion as political emer- 
gencies appeared to require alterations. When the power 
of Berne was doubled by the conquest of the Vaud, the 
assembly of the burghers ceased to be thought of. The 
dignities of the state became hereditary in those families 
which had once obtained a seat in the great council. It 
is true that the other burghers remained eligible to public 
functions ; but it was rarely indeed, and generally by 
means of intermarriages, that a new family raised itself 
to the rank of the rulers de facto. 

The administration of these ruling families was, in 
general, not devoid of wisdom and equity ; and, in fact 
the principal subject of complaint was that participation 
in state affairs had ceased to be open to all. It was, 
however, precisely this system of aristocratic exclusion 
which w r as felt so insupportably by many of those who 
were subjected to it, that so early as 1710 attempts w r ere 
made to break it up. These were renewed with increased 
vigour, in 1743, by six and twenty burghers, who com- 
bined to petition the council for the revival of a greater 
equality of rights in favour of the general body of citi- 
zens. These adventurous men incurred the censure of the 
authorities, and were placed under arrest in their houses 
or banished. Amongst the exiles was Samuel Henzi, a 
man of no ordinary talent and spirit. He had fixed 
on Neufchatel as the place of his banishment ; the term 
of which was shortened by the favour of the authorities. 
On his return, the embarrassed state in which he found 
his domestic economy, and the ill-success of his efforts 
to obtain a lucrative office, may have mingled with other 
motives in inducing him to take the lead in a desperate 
undertaking of a little band of malcontents, who, without 
money, arms, or even unity of purpose, dreamed of 
overturning a government strong in its own resources, 



1749. CONSPIRACY OF HENZI. 275 

and sure of support from the whole Helvetic body, and 
of instituting equality of rights among all burghers, and 
appointment to all offices by lot. Yet, with all their root 
and branch work, the conspirators had no idea of reme- 
dying the real defects of the state, of satisfying the pre- 
valent and increasing discontents of the Vaud, or of 
procuring an extension of political rights to the whole 
people: for, in the plan of a constitution annexed to 
their meditated manifesto, exclusive regard was paid to 
the burghers at Berne; and the rest of the people would 
hardly have been bettered by their accession to the dig- 
nities which had hitherto been engrossed by the ruling 
famihes. The 13th of July, 1749, was fixed for the 
execution of the plans of the conspirators; but many of 
their own number had opened their eyes by this time 
to the utter impossibility of success, produced by the 
disunion and imprudence of their colleagues — to the 
passion and cupidity of some, and the atrocious hopes 
of murder and plunder entertained by others. No man 
felt more sensibly the criminal views of his party than 
the only man of ability and public spirit among them, 
Henzi. He would not betray those with whom he had 
long pursued the same object ; but he made an attempt 
to save himself by flight from farther participation in 
their plans and foreseen destiny. It was too late : a 
betrayer had already done his work. Henzi and other 
heads of the party were taken and beheaded during the 
first exasperation of the government. Sentence of death 
was also pronounced upon some who had made their 
escape ; others were imprisoned or banished, but soon 
afterwards pardoned. On embarking with her two sons 
to quit the Helvetic territory, the wife of Henzi ex- 
claimed, (i I would rather see these children sink in the 
.Rhine-stream than they should not one day learn to 
avenge the murder of their father." However, when 
the sons came to manhood, they displayed more mag- 
nanimity than their mother : and one of them, who rose 
to distinction in the service of the Netherlands, requited 
with good offices to the burghers of his native town the 

t 2 



276 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1781. 



unmerited misfortunes which they had brought upon his 
family. 

In Freyburg, — where, in old times, equality of rights 
for all burghers had been settled as a principle, — a no 
less close aristocracy had formed itself than in Berne, 
since the middle of the seventeenth century. A few 
houses, under the denomination of secret families, had 
contrived to exclude, not only the country people, but a 
large proportion likewise of the town burghers, from all 
participation in public affairs; and, in 1684, admission 
into the number of these secret families was rendered 
wholly impossible. From thenceforwards, constantly 
increasing discontent displayed itself both in town and 
country. Several very moderate proposals for alleviating 
the pressure of this oligarchy were rejected with such 
haughtiness by the government, that disaffection swelled 
into revolt. In 1781, Peter Nicolas Chenaux of la 
Tour de Treme, John Peter Raccaud, and an advocate 
of Gruyeres, of the name of Casteiiaz, formed a league 
for the achievement of a higher degree of freedom. 
First they endeavoured to work upon the people by fair 
promises. Then Chenaux, at the head of a select band 
of fifty or sixty, undertook to terrify the government 
into a compromise. But the gates being closed on the 
party, and the walls manned with armed burghers, this 
undertaking ended in open revolt, The toll of alarm- 
bells summoned up the country people from every hill 
and valley in the canton to assist in the coercion of the 
domineering capital. A body of nearly three thousand 
men encamped before the walls of Freyburg, and farther 
aid was hourly expected. The terrified burghers in- 
stantly called for the armed intervention of Berne, and 
the latter town detached a part of its guard without 
delay. Three hundred dragoons marched upon Frey- 
burg, and were to be followed by fourteen hundred foot. 
The burghers of Freyburg now thought themselves 
strong enough to meet force with force. The garrison 
made a sally from the town, and on the first sight of 
the Bernese flag, not to mention the heavy artillery, the 



1781. INSURRECTION AT FREYBURG. 277 

malecontents solicited an armistice. The surrender of 
their arms and of their ringleaders was demanded as 
preliminary to all negotiation. The people refused the 
latter of these conditions, but fled panic-struck on the 
first attack, without making any resistance. The whole 
affair would have ended without bloodshed, had not the 
leader Chenaux been murdered in his flight by Henry 
Rosier, himself one of the popular party. The two re- 
maining heads of the insurgents got clear off: Chenaux's 
corpse was delivered to the public executioner^ and his 
head fixed on a spear above the Romont gate. Sentence 
of death was passed on Castellaz and Raccaud, the two 
fugitives. Several others were visited with less degrees 
of punishment : new reinforcements from Berne, Soleure, 
and Lucerne, secured the town from any recurrence of 
tumult, and their ambassadors strove to promote the re- 
storation of tranquillity. It was ordered to be pro- 
claimed, from all the pulpits, that the council was well 
disposed to protect the old and well attested rights of its 
loving subjects, as well as to hear, with its never-failing 
graciousness, every suitable and respectful representation. 
Three days were allotted to each commune to lay their 
complaints and wishes before the government, through 
delegates. But when months elapsed without the popular 
grievances having obtained a hearing, the loss of 
Chenaux began to be appreciated. Multitudes assembled 
round his tomb weeping and praying : pilgrimages, as 
if to the tomb of a saint, were made thither with 
banners, and with crucifixes. Vainly were these de- 
monstrations of feeling stigmatised, by the government 
as crimes against the state, by the bishop as impious 
profanations. They were neither to be checked by 
posting sentinels, nor fulminating excommunications. 
They were the last sad consolation of the people, — the 
last substitute for hopes that were already given up. 

In the disunited and feeble state of the Swiss con- 
federation, it could not be matter of much surprise that 
foreigners began to treat it with very little respect. 
Instead of intrigue and corruption being now what 

t 3 



278 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1777. 



Philip de Comines had called them, the only means of 
vanquishing the Swiss, naked menaces often proved a 
very successful substitute. Austria, and still more 
France, perpetually encroached upon them. A fertile 
source of annoyance were the constant efforts of these 
powers to jostle one another out of favour with the con- 
federation, and in case of war to secure themselves an 
exclusive supply of Swiss soldiers. France in general 
gained the upper hand in these competitions, and re- 
warded the land from which she drew whole hordes of 
recruits by restraints on trade, prohibitions of export, 
and all the frauds of national bankruptcy. About the 
middle of the eighteenth century } the confederates had 
sunk into such contempt at the French court, that they 
refrained from addressing even the most equitable 
demands to it, in the certain anticipation of a refusal. 
But all slights were compensated by such banquets as 
that which the French ambassador gave at Soleure on 
the 13th of September, 1751, in honour of the birth of 
an heir to the throne. On this occasion a large amount 
of gold and silver coins was thrown to the crowd, to be 
scrambled for at six different points of the town. In 
honour of the same happy event, gold medals of large 
size were distributed to all the principal persons in the 
cantons. These were received with great pleasure 
throughout the whole confederation ; and the ambassador 
had the address to reconcile Zurich and Berne with the 
French court, after a long period of mutual alienation. 
Finally, in 1777;> a new alliance of the whole Helvetic 
body with the crown of France was solemnly concluded 
at Soleure. But the CDnfirmation of those commercial 
privileges, which the confederates had looked for from 
this alliance, were postponed by one of its clauses, which 
set forth, (C that both contracting parties, animated by 
perfect reciprocal confidence, had been unwilling to 
delay, by farther discussions, the conclusion of the 
present alliance." 



>9 



1707. " PATRICIANS OF GENEVA. 279 



CHAP. XIX. 

DISTURBANCES AT GENEVA, AND IN NEUFChAtEL. 
1707—1789. 

ARROGANCE OF " PATRICIANS " AT GENEVA. POPULAR EBULLI- 
TION AGAINST THEM IN 1707. RENEWED IN 1714. 

AGAIN IN 1734. DEFENSIVE MEASURES OF THE COUNCIL 

BAFFLED BY THE POPULACE. EDICT OF 1738. BURNING 

OF THE BOOKS OF ROUSSEAU. REPRESENTATIVE AND NEGA- 
TIVE PARTIES. ARMED INTERVENTION OF FRANCE, ZURICH, 

AND BERNE. INTRIGUES OF THE FRENCH. OF THE NEGA- 
TIVES. — - REVOLT OF THE REPRESENTATIVES, WHO ERECT A NEW 

TONSTITUTION. FRESH INTERFERENCE OF FRANCE, BERNE, 

AND SAVOY. ENTRANCE AND OCCUPATION OF GENEVA BY 

THEIR TROOPS. REGLEMENT OF 1782. ITS CONSEQUENCES. 

DISCONTENTS IN NEUFCHATEL. DEATH OF GAUDOT. MAG- 
NANIMITY OF FREDERICK II. OF PRUSSIA. 

Shortly after the estabKshment of Genevan independ- 
ence, it had been decreed by the general assembly, for 
the better suppression of hostile attempts against their 
hard- won freedom, that whoever should propose a change 
in the government of Geneva should be considered to 
deserve capital punishment. This did not, however, 
hinder alterations being made, at different times, in various 
parts of the constitution. So early as the middle of the 
sixteenth century, the laws were revised and improved. 
The advantageous situation of the town and the long 
duration of peace promoted the increase of wealth in 
Geneva, and the rise of many families to opulence. 
These families aimed at separating themselves from their 
fellow-citizens, even in their places of habitation, by 
settling in the upper part of the town, near the council- 
house, while the other burghers inhabited the lower town. 
The principal families already regarded themselves as a 
standing patriciate ; and even the name of patrician 
came into use in the acts of council. The Registres du 

t 4 



280 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1707. 



Conseil de la Republique de Geneve contain the following 
sentence, dated 1 69O, on occasion of calumnious reports 
upon a member of some privileged family : — " Lesquels 
bruits tendent a le priver de I'honneur auquel il estimait 
etre en droit de pretendre par son age, ses services, et la 
famille patricienne dont il descend" In the years pre- 
ceding the breaking out of the tumults which we shall 
have to relate, many examples of favouritism occur in 
the elections of members of council ; and a decree was 
passed, on the 9th January, 1697, " d'empecher que Von 
donne aussi facilement le titre de madame auoc femmes de 
toutes conditions.' 1 

The year 1707 witnessed an effort of the inferior 
burghers to wrest from the principal families a part of 
their usurped power, and to introduce amendments in 
the constitution. In this emergency, the council invoked 
the mediation of Berne and Zurich, received a con- 
federate garrison, and maintained itself by force of arms 
and by execution of its principal antagonists. A renewal 
of the disturbances which had been quelled by such 
violent measures, was produced, in 1714, by the impo- 
sition of an arbitrary tax by the council for the enlarge- 
ment and completion of the fortifications of the town. 
This stretch of power occasioned great discontent among 
the burghers ; bitter attacks and censures on the govern- 
ment appeared in print ; and the more strictly these were 
prohibited, they obtained the more eager perusal and 
credence. One of the arch-promoters of the rising storm 
was Michael Ducrest, a Genevan burgher and noble, 
an officer in the army, and a member of the great council. 
This man opposed himself with extraordinary vehemence 
to the building of the new fortifications, and heaped 
offensive charges on the partisans of the measure. The 
government condemned him to recant, and, on his evading 
compliance by flight, a penal sentence was pronounced 
against him. New attempts which he made to excite 
disturbance were followed by a sentence of perpetual im- 
prisonment. This sentence could not be put in exe- 
cution, as Ducrest had taken refuge under a foreign 



1734. 



POPULAR EBULLITIONS. 



281 



jurisdiction, where he set at defiance the council of 
Geneva, and provoked that body to such a degree by his 
writings and intrigues against them, that sentences more 
and more severe were heaped upon his head, until at 
length the most offensive of his writings was torn by the 
hangman, and his effigy was suspended from the gallows. 
His person, however, enjoyed impunity till 1744, when 
he was taken into custody in the territory of Berne. The 
government of Geneva did not thirst for his blood, and 
was content with his perpetual imprisonment. Even in 
this situation he contrived to mix in Henzi's conspiracy, 
was confined in the castle of Aarburg, and closed, in ex- 
treme old age, as a state prisoner, a life which he had 
spent in incessant labours in the cause of democracy. 

Meanwhile Geneva continued to be agitated by party 
manoeuvres and popular discontents. In the year 1 7 34, 
a body of 800 burghers addressed themselves to the heads 
of the government, desiring the curtailment of the pro- 
jected fortifications, and the repeal of the tax levied for 
that object. The council only replied by preparations for 
defence : fire arms were transported to the council hall ; 
barricades erected in the approaches thither as well as in 
those to the upper town, where the principal class of 
burghers lived, and the garrison kept in readiness to act 
on the first signal. All this apparatus was regarded with 
mistrust by the burghers, who were still farther provoked 
by reports of the approach of Bernese troops, and by the 
removal of a part of the town artillery to the upper 
regions, while two and twenty other pieces were spiked. 
The multitude made themselves masters of the city guard, 
pointed field-pieces on the road by which the troops from 
Berne were expected, and tumultuously demanded the 
convocation of the burgher assembly, the sovereign au- 
thority of Geneva. The council contrived to win over 
the members of this body so far that they voted una- 
nimously the completion of the fortifications and the 
continuance of the tax for ten years. The declaration of 
an amnesty and improvement of the criminal and judicial 
administration formed the rest of their business. The 



282 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1737- 



burghers laid down their arms and returned to their or- 
dinary vocations ; so that an embassy which arrived 
from Zurich and Berne found Geneva in a state of ap- 
parent tranquillity. Permanent ill will was fostered only 
against the syndic Trembley, commander of the garrison 
and conductor of the defensive preparations of the 
council. Whatever this person had done by the in- 
structions of the council was laid to his individual account,, 
and added to the mass of dark imputations which were 
heaped on him, as the head of an already obnoxious 
family. He plumed himself on the favour of the con- 
federate ambassadors, and forfeited thus the last chance 
of retrieving himself in the public opinion. The re- 
membrance of the armed intervention of Zurich and 
Berne, in 1707. was too recent to admit of their am- 
bassadors doing any good to Trembley's cause through 
the medium of pacific intercession. The departure of 
these embassies removed the only screen of the syndic : 
he demanded his dismission, which was refused him, in 
order to deprive him of his functions more ignominiously. 
No resistance or artifice of a powerful connection could 
save him : the tumults were renewed with increased 
fury ; and the question soon ceased to regard the person 
or party of Trembley, and became that of the triumph of 
the aristocratic or democratic principle at Geneva. In 
1737j, the council ventured several arrests, and the con- 
sequence was that the whole body of burghers rushed to 
arms, and the council was defeated, not without blood- 
shed. A garrison from Berne and Zurich was thrown 
into the town : the ambassadors of these cantons, in 
concert with the French ambassador, undertook the office 
of mediators, and in 1738 framed a constitution which 
set limits to the assumptions of the council and the prin- 
cipal families, and was gratefully and all but unanimously 
accepted as a fundamental law by the burghers. 

After four and twenty years of repose and prosperity, 
occasion was given to new political movements at Geneva 
by a subject of a nature purely speculative. It pleased 
more than one government about this time to apply the 



1762. BURNING OF ROUSSEAU'S "SMILE," ETC. 283 

doom of fire, which had been visited by inquisitors on 
the ill fated victims of their zealotry, to certain of the 
more remarkable works of the human intellect, — a pro- 
ceeding highly calculated to draw the eyes of the reading 
public on productions which seemed worthy of such 
signal condemnation. On the first appearance of that 
work of Rousseau which opened views so novel and so 
striking on the moral, and still more on the physical, 
education of man, the parliament of Paris had the work 
burnt by the hangman, and sentenced Rousseau to im- 
prisonment, which he only escaped by flight. Both of 
these decisions were immediately repeated by the council 
of Geneva, which improved on them by launching a like 
condemnatory sentence against the Contrat Social of the 
same author. It was in vain that Rousseau's connections 
demanded a copy of the sentence against him : their re- 
iterated demands, though supported by a large body of 
burghers, were rejected by the council. The popular 
party, which vindicated the right of the burgher as- 
sembly to bring up representations or remonstrances 
against the council on any subject under discussion, dis- 
tinguished themselves by the name of representatives. 
Their claims were met by asserting a droit negatif, or 
right of rejection, on the strength of which the council 
pretended that nothing that should not have been pre- 
viously consented to by themselves could come before 
the general assembly. The partisans of the council were 
called negatives. 

The tranquillity of Geneva was once more disturbed 
to such a degree by passionate discourses, party writings, 
and manoeuvres, that the ambassadors of Zurich, Berne, 
and France again interfered, and pronounced themselves 
in favour of the council. The representatives rejected 
their decision, the ambassadors left Geneva, French 
troops advanced on the town, and all trade and inter- 
course were suspended. But the French ministry 
speedily became lukewarm in the cause of the negatives. 
The latter, when they found themselves abandoned by 
all foreign aid, apprehending what might ensue, patched 



284 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1?68. 



up a peace with the representatives. By a compact 
closed in March, 176*8, the burghers acquired valuable 
rights, and even a third party, that of the so-called 
natifs or habitans, (old inhabitants, excluded by birth 
from taking part in public affairs,) obtained extended 
franchises, and was flattered with a prospect of par- 
ticipation in all the rights of citizenship. But on re- 
covery from the first panic, reciprocal hatred soon 
revived. The negatives were vexed at having made such 
important sacrifices, and aimed at resuming all their 
former ascendency. Moreover they found a favourable 
hearing in the French court, which had long viewed 
with an evil eye the trade and wealth of Geneva, de- 
sired to raise the neighbouring Versoix to a commercial 
town, and hoped, by encouraging tumult and disorder 
at Geneva, either to annihilate its industry and opulence, 
or ultimately to bring it under the sovereignty of France. 
French emissaries therefore aided the negatives in spi- 
riting the natifs up against the representatives, by pro- 
mising to confer on them the franchises withheld by 
the latter. But the representatives flew to arms, took 
possession of the gates, and speedily succeeded in dis- 
arming the unpractised and undisciplined mob of natifs. 
Well aware by what manoeuvres the natifs had been 
led to revolt, they prudently abstained from taking any 
vindictive measures against them; but, on the contrary, 
imparted to them, in 1 781^ that equality of rights 
which had been promised by the negatives, and en- 
deavoured thus to win them over permanently to the 
common cause. The council, on the other hand, im- 
pelled by French influence, declared the newly-conferred 
rights illegally extorted, and invoked the mediation of 
Berne and Zurich. But betwixt representative stub- 
bornness and negative assumption, the ambassadors of 
these towns could exert but limited influence. They 
essayed to put an end to disputes by amicable arrange- 
ments, but were baffled by the intrigues of the French 
court, which was resolved to recognise no democratical 
system on its frontiers, and soon proceeded to open 



1782. REGLEMENT ITS CONSEQUENCES. 285 

force in support of its secret policy. The f first act of 
aggression was to garrison Versoix ; a measure which 
gave just offence to Zurich and Berne, who thereupon 
renounced all adhesion to the mediation of 1738, and 
left the Genevans to their own discretion. France also 
declared she would mix no more in the affairs of Ge- 
neva—the government was overthrown — and a new 
constitution established. 

Zurich and Berne now declared formally and coldly 
that they could not acknowledge a government erected 
by revolt. Still more indignation was exhibited by 
France and Savoy, who entered into a league for the 
coercion of the town. Berne, too, joined this league in 
1782, that the destiny of Geneva, that point d'appui 
of her own dominion, might not be trusted altogether 
to the caprice of foreign powers. On the appearance 
of the allied troops before the gates of Geneva, the 
burghers, unaware of the bad state of their defences, 
swore to bury themselves in the ruins of their native 
town rather than yield. But when the cannon of the 
besiegers was advanced up to their walls, and the alter- 
native of desperate resistance or surrender was offered, 
the disunited city opened her gates without stroke of 
sword, after the principal heads of the representative 
party had taken to flight, Mortal dread accompanied 
the victorious troops as they entered Geneva. Many 
had reason to tremble for their lives, their liberty, and 
possessions. No punishments, however, were inflicted, 
excepting only the banishment of the principal popular 
leaders ; but the rights of the burghers were almost en- 
tirely annihilated by the arbitrary arrangements of the 
victors; the government was invested by them with 
almost unlimited power, and proceeded under their 
auspices to prohibit all secret societies, military exer- 
cises, books and pamphlets on recent events, and to re- 
inforce the garrison by 1200 men under foreign leaders. 
Thus the town was reduced to utter subjection, and de- 
populated by exile and emigration. From thencefor- 
wards commerce and enterprise fell into decay; and 



286 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND, 



1782. 



for seven long years a forced, unnatural calm dwelt in 
Geneva.* 

During these years the government was conducted with 
much mildness, the administration of justice was im- 
partial, that of the public revenues incorrupt, art and 
industry were encouraged to the utmost. But nothing 
could win the lost hearts of the people back to the 
government. The iniquity of the so-called reglement 
cf 1782, the destruction of their franchises, and the 
disarming of their persons, had wounded irrecoverably 
the feelings of the burghers. The malecontents increased 
daily in number; and even many former negatives now 
disowned their party, which had gone greater lengths 
than they had ever wished or expected. At length, on 
the death of Vergennes, the French minister, and arch 
enemy of Genevan independence, the spirit of freedom 
awoke with all its ancient strength in Geneva, and the 
burghers arose to break their slavish fetters. But the 
recital of the subsequent occurrences must be postponed 
until we come to notice the train of events fired by the 
French revolution. 

The little principality of Neufchatel, the succession 
of which had descended in the same line since the aera 
of the second Burgundian monarchy, came, in 1707, 
into the hands of the king of Prussia, as next heir to 
the ancient house of Chalon. In 1748, Frederick II. 
displayed that love of economy which distinguished all 
his measures, by farming out certain parts of the publie 
revenue arising from tithes, ground rents, and the 
crown lands ; from the former administration of which 
many of the inhabitants had enjoyed considerable pro- 
fits. The loss of these, of course, was felt as a grievance 
by the losers ; but what was viewed with more concern 
by the mass of the inhabitants was the prospect of still 
farther innovations. Accordingly five communes of the 
Val de Travers transmitted their remonstrances through 
a delegate to Berlin ; and their example was soon after- 
wards followed throughout the principality. 

* See the Appendix. 



1768. 



TUMULTS IN NEUFCHATEL. 



287 



The arrival of two commissaries, despatched by the 
king to Neufchatel, was viewed with discontent as an 
encroachment on its immunities. Shortly after their 
coming, an attempt was made to put in execution the 
proposed financial system, of which the only result was 
to provoke a tumultuous popular movement. On the 
7th of January, 1767, the burgher assembly of Neuf- 
chatel passed a resolution of exclusion from the rights 
of citizenship, against all who should farm or guarantee 
the farming of the revenues. On this the royal com- 
missary, Von Derschau, brought a suit before the 
council of Berne, against the town of Neufchatel ; and 
the advocate-general, Gaudot, who had formerly been a 
popular favourite, much to the surprise of his fellow- 
citizens, seceded to the royal side, and thenceforwards 
gave his active assistance to the commissary. 

The cause was decided at Berne (with some limit- 
ations) in the royal favour. With regard to the reso- 
lutions of the Neufchatel burghers, already referred to, 
it was decreed that they should be cancelled in the pre- 
sence of the burgher assembly, and a public apology 
made to the vice-governor. The costs of the whole 
process to be paid by the town. Gaudot, who had at- 
tacked the civic immunities both by word and writing, 
naturally became an object of popular indignation. By 
way of compensation, however, he received a lucrative 
government office, along with the functions of procurator- 
general, from which another man had been removed 
who possessed the popular favour. He returned to 
Neufchatel from Berne with the royal plenipotentiaries. 
These and the vice-governor advised him to take up his 
residence in the castle ; but, in spite of their recom- 
mendations, Gaudot thought fit to repair to his own 
residence. The same evening, clamour and disturbance 
took place around the house, which the magistrates were 
forced to protect by military force. The next morning 
the mob returned in increased numbers, and was still 
farther exasperated by missiles being thrown down upon 
them. A carriage, escorted by servants in the royal 



-290 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



nominious traffic went to the public treasury. Was it to be 
wondered at if these functionaries in their turn set jus- 
tice up to auction in their bailiwicks, and endeavoured 
to recover their advances to the government by every 
sort of oppression of its subjects ? Mental cultivation was 
extremely neglected in these cantons, scientific establish- 
ments were rare, and those for education were, for the 
most part, in the hands of the capuchins ; whose esprit 
de corps was at least on one occasion beneficial, by pre- 
venting the admission of the jesuits into the canton of 
Schwytz in 1758. Elsewhere, however, similar in- 
fluences produced worse effects. In Glarus, so late as 
1780, an unfortunate servant girl was executed as a 
witch, on the charge of having lamed the leg of a 
child by magic, and having caused it to vomit pins. 
Credulous souls were even found to believe the affirm- 
ation that the girl had administered pin- seed through 
the medium of a magical cake, which had afterwards 
borne its fruit within the body of the child. The po- 
litical relations of these cantons, in the period now 
before us, were of little importance. 

The constitutions of the aristocratical cantons had all 
of them this circumstance in common, that not only the 
capital towns assumed the rule of the whole canton, but 
the burghers of those towns themselves were divided 
into ruling and non-ruling families, of which the former 
monopolised admission to all places of honour. But the 
governments of these cantons deserve to be treated of 
more at length.* 

Berne, which, in the first period after its foundation, 
had no domains of any importance outside its walls, 
possessed in that immediately preceding the French 
revolution a territory containing more than 400,000 
inhabitants. This considerable tract of land was admi- 
nistered by 250 ruling families, of which, however, only 
about sixty were in actual possession of the government ; 
and these again were divided into so-called great and 
small families, and did not easily suffer others to rise to 

* See the statistical tables in the Appendix.. 



PAYS DE VAUjD. BERNE. 



291 



an equality with them. The sovereign power resided 
in 299 persons, of whom the great council was com- 
posed. A little council or senate of five-and-twenty 
formed the executive. The rural districts and the Pays 
de Vaud were governed by land-vogts or bailiffs. It 
was chiefly there that discontent prevailed against the 
Bernese government. The nobles of the Pays de Vaud 
were rendered wholly insensible to the real and solid 
advantages secured to them by that government, by re- 
sentment cf their exclusion from all public employments. 
The peasants of that district, for the most part subjects 
or bondsmen of the nobles, sighed under the weight of 
feudal oppression and its accustomed offspring, poverty, 
neglected culture, mental and moral abortion. A sin- 
gular attempt at revolt was made in 1723 by major 
Daniel Abraham Davel, a well-intentioned man, of ex- 
cellent character, but a decided political and religious 
enthusiast, possessed with the idea that he was called by 
inspiration to emancipate the Vaud from Berne. He 
assembled the regiment of militia which he commanded, 
under the pretext of a review, and with these troops, 
who were altogether ignorant of his real design, and un- 
provided with stores or ammunition, he surprised the 
town of Lausanne at a point of time when all the Bernese 
land-vogts had gone to Berne for the annual installation. 
Davel offered his aid for the restoration of independence 
to the hastily assembled town council. He found, how- 
ever, no kindred spirit in that body ; and the cautious 
citizens put him off with fair words till a force was 
under arms sufficient to crush him. Meanwhile his 
troops had discovered the real object of their commander, 
and shrunk from him in surprise and consternation. He 
himself was arrested, cruelly tortured for the discovery 
of accomplices, of whom he had none, and lastly beheaded. 

A certain contempt cf scholastic acquirements seemed 
the prevailing tone at Berne; and school education na- 
turally came to deserve the low esteem which it met 
with. Accordingly those patrician youths who did not 
serve in the army remained for the most part unem- 

v 2 



292 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



ployed until they obtained places under government. 
The establishment of what was called the exterior state 
afforded but a superficial substitute for more solid attain- 
ments, and initiated youth only too early in the petty 
intrigues and jealousies of faction. This institution, 
which was also known by the name of the shadow state, 
was intended to give the youth of the ruling families 
opportunities for acquainting themselves with the forms 
at least of public business, and of acquiring an unem- 
barrassed address, so important for republicans. It 
parodised the dignities and offices of the state, the elec- 
tion of avoyers, councillors, and senators, had its secre- 
taries and functionaries of all ranks, and distributed by 
lot 120 vogtships, which for the most part took their 
names from ruined castles. Without any sufficient 
evidence, some would refer to the sera of the Burgundian 
war the origin of this institution, which received the 
sanction of government in 1 68 7, and for which a council- 
house, far more splendid than that which belonged to 
the actual government, was built in 1729- The seal of 
this exterior state bore an ape astride on a lobster, and 
looking at himself in a mirror. These and similar traits 
of humour seem to owe their descent to an sera exceed- 
ingly remote from the measured formality of later times. 

The government of Lucerne, which with Soleure and 
Freyburg, formed the remaining pure Swiss aristocracies, 
consisted of a little council of six-and-thirty members, 
which, reinforced by sixty-four others, held the sovereign 
authority. With regard to intellectual cultivation, the 
most contradictory features were observable at Lucerne. 
On the one hand, learning, enlightenment, and patriotism 
were hereditary distinctions of some families ; while, on 
the other hand, the mass was imbued with ignorant fa- 
naticism. On the one hand, the encroachments of the 
papacy were resisted with inflexible firmness ; while, on 
the other hand, the clergy kept possession of a highly 
mischievous influence in the state. On the one hand, 
a series of saints' days and holidays was abolished, as 
being dedicated to dissoluteness more than devotion ; 



LUCERNE HELVETIC SOCIETY. 2Q3 

while, on the other hand, we are horror-struck by the 
burning of a so-called heretic. In 1747, a court, consist- 
ing of four clergymen, sentenced Jacob Schmidli of the 
Sulzig, a man of blameless life, to be strangled, and then 
burnt with his books and writings, because he had not 
only read the Bible for his private edification, but had 
explained and recommended it to others as the sole true 
basis of religion. His wife, his six children, and seventy- 
one other persons, were banished, his house burnt to the 
ground by the hands of the public executioner, and a 
monument raised on its former site, to perpetuate the 
ignominy (query, of the victim or of his judges ?). 

The appearance of two pamphlets in 1769, on the 
question, " whether removal or restriction of the mo- 
nastic orders might not be found beneficial to the 
catholic cantons?" excited terrible uproar at Lucerne, 
where certain classes were constantly scenting danger 
to church or state from some quarter. The town and 
country clergy, and the bigots in the council, were 
rejoiced to get so good an opportunity to persecute the 
holders of free principles, and raised a deplorable howl, 
as if the canton were on the verge of destruction. The 
whole population was plunged in consternation and 
astonishment, by thundering sermons and rigorous pro- 
hibitions of the obnoxious work. Free-thinkers were 
fulminated against by name from the pulpits ; and 
Schinznacht, which had witnessed the formation of the 
Helvetic society, was denounced as the focus and head- 
quarters of heresy. This society, which aimed at the 
diffusion of useful knowledge, public spirit, and union 
throughout the Helvetic body, without reference to 
varieties of religion, rank, or political system, was 
founded by a knot of patriotic and instructed men, in 
the pious hope of arresting the decline of the confe- 
deration. At its commencement it consisted of no more 
than nine members, but added to its numbers with 
astonishing rapidity. The society was soon viewed 
with an evil eye by the cantonal governments, which 
dreaded all independence of feeling and action in the 

u 3 



29^ 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



people. At Berne, political dangers were anticipated 
from it, as symptoms of refractoriness were exhibited 
shortly after its formation by the nobles in the Vaud : 
while at Lucerne it was regarded as a conspiracy for 
shaking off the catholic religion, and assisting the sup- 
posed ambition of Berne to gain ascendency over the 
whole confederation. 

The aristo-democratical governments next come under 
our notice, and in these, as in most of the purely aristo- 
cratical, the metropolis had obtained unlimited power 
over the whole canton. In these, however, particular 
families did not engross the sovereign power ; the col- 
lective body of citizens had maintained themselves by 
means of the regulations of their guilds in the posses- 
sion of considerable influence over the ' public affairs. 
Accordingly the magistracy favoured the monopolies 
which enriched the metropolitan traders, and imposed 
restraints on the industry and invention of the surround- 
ing country. Thenee the subjects of these towns were 
much more harshly administered than those of the aris- 
tocratical cantons. Their ancient charters fell into ob- 
livion, and were withdrawn as far as possible from public 
inspection ; they were not only excluded from civil and 
military, but even from ecclesiastical functions ; and 
the exercise of many branches of industry, and the sale 
of their productions in the towns, was wholly cut off 
by corporation privileges. Moreover, since the com- 
mencement of the century of which we are treating, no 
mode of acquiring the rights of burghers remained open ; 
they were only conferred on extremely rare occasions to 
reward eminent merit ; or when the times became trou- 
blesome to conciliate influential burghers. Hence that 
discontent and disaffection which broke out at the close 
of the century found a principal focus in the heart of 
the mixed aristocracies. 

In the larger cantons the public administration was 
for the most part incorrupt ; and that of justice was 
Mable on the whole to fewer complaints than in many 
other European countries. The pay of public servants, 



FREE BAILIWICKS. 



295 



with few exceptions, was extremely moderate. Men 
who had devoted their whole lives to public affairs, and 
who had filled the highest offices in the state, lost more 
than they gained by the bounty of their country. At 
Zurich, the expenses of the government were wholly 
defrayed without the imposition of taxes, properly so 
called, from the revenues and interests of the national 
lands and capital, from ground-rents, tithes, the salt 
monopoly, and the produce of the premium paid by the 
several guilds of traders in return for their exclusive 
privileges. The same description is applicable to the 
government of Berne, excepting that here the course of 
justice was tedious and expensive. The superior finan- 
cial resources of the latter canton enabled her to execute 
more for public ends than Zurich. Berne invested con- 
siderable sums in foreign securities, particularly in the 
English funds ; and, besides, amassed a treasure amount- 
ing to some millions of dollars, which became, as we 
shall presently see, and as Mably had predicted, the 
booty of rapacious and powerful neighbours. 

Very different was the condition of the free or com- 
mon bailiwicks, particularly those of the democratical 
cantons ; here most of the land-vogts sought by every 
species of extortion to indemnify themselves for the 
sums for which they had in fact bought their places 
from the general assemblies of their respective can- 
tons. Many made an open traffic of justice ; took pre- 
sents from both parties ; helped delinquents to evade 
deserved punishment who could pay for exemption, and 
exacted contributions from the wealthier class whenever 
and wherever they could. Even farther than in the 
German domains of Switzerland were abuses of this 
kind carried in the Italian bailiwicks, and most of all 
in those of the Grisons. The inevitable tendency of 
such treatment was to debase the popular character in 
those districts, and its effects have left unequivocal traces 
even to this day. 

In those towns of which the constitution was grounded 
on corporate bodies, the privileges of the burghers and 

u 4 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



their guilds received progressive extensions. Proposi- 
tions w T ere made which would hardly have been con- 
ceivable in monarchical states, and could only, in fact, 
take place where particular classes had to decide upon 
the destiny of the rest of their fellow-countrymen. In 
Basle it was several times proposed, under the pretext 
of protection to agriculture, that the exercise of certain 
manufactures should be prohibited altogether in the 
rural part of the canton. 

Agriculture was advanced by the cultivation of clover 
and of other artificial grasses, and by the consequent 
increase of pasturage and manure. Many districts which 
had formerly been regarded as unfruitful were thus ren- 
dered remarkable for fertility. The processes of ma- 
nuring^ and many others in Swiss cultivation, became 
a model for foreign agriculturists. Arts and manufac- 
tures were extended more and more widely. In the 
canton of Berne, in the Thurgau, and elsewhere, indus- 
try was employed on native materials in the linen-ma- 
nufacture; in Zurich, St. Gall, and Appenzell, in working 
up imported wool in spinning, weaving, and cotton 
printing. Silk manufactures occupied Zurich and Basle, 
and the latter town enriched itself by its riband manu- 
facture. Trade in all its branches throve at Geneva ; 
where a wholesale watch manufacture was conducted, 
and from whence watchmaking was soon spread through 
the district of Neufchatel, where it suggested many other 
mechanical processes. 

Intellectual culture and social refinements marched 
abreast w T ith commercial wealth. Not only the towns 
were embellished with architectural structures, but in 
the Emmenthal, and around the lakes of Zurich and 
Geneva, arose new and splendid edifices which bespoke 
increasing opulence. In Neufchatel, which a century be- 
fore had been inhabited by shepherds, the villages as- 
sumed the appearance of towns ; and the wealthy marts 
of England or the Netherlands were recalled to the mind 
of the traveller by the principal street of Winterthur. 
Intercourse with other states in trade or in foreign 



LITERATURE. WAR. DECAY OF PREJUDICE. 297 

services naturalised new wants and desires, yet many 
still adhered to the old usages and manners. In whole 
districts, especially in the democratic cantons, public 
opinion imperiously set limits to the advance of luxury. 
In other places sumptuary laws maintained a struggle 
with the various arts of invention and evasion ; and a 
wholesome state of simplicity was preserved in Zurich, 
St. Gall, and Basle, in which celibacy became a sort of 
rarity. 

Sciences and arts were diffused extensively in Swit- 
zerland. Albert von Haller, the labours of whose com- 
prehensive mind were chiefly devoted to the sciences of 
botany and medicine, directed his attention also to poli- 
tics and philosophy. Eloquence and daring imagination 
conferred European celebrity on Lavater. Rousseau pro- 
mulgated truths in education and in politics, which will 
not be lost for future generations, whatever alloy of 
paradox or perverse misapplication they might suffer 
from himself or his followers. The merits of the 
Bernouillis, Eulers, Lamberts, Saussures, Bonnets, Tis- 
sots, Zimmermanns, and others, are still present to the 
memory of the literary public. 

To render the war department of the confederacy 
more complete, and introduce into it some degree of 
unity, an association of military officers and magistrates 
was formed, which held its meetings at Aarau. More 
was done, however, for the military department by storing 
up munitions of war than by well adapted martial ex- 
ercise. Instead of attempting to give precision of move- 
ment to the militia, the slower manoeuvres of regular 
troops were objects of imitation. The formation of 
the Zurich corps of sharp-shooters, however, was more 
suitable to the real wants and nature of the country. 

The bitterness of religious and political dissension 
which had long prevailed in so many odious forms began 
to decline, and the personal worth of men began to be 
estimated by less absurd criteria than their speculative 
opinions. Old prejudices vanished, or at all events 
were mitigated, and even if the recognition of principles 



298 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1789- 



more enlightened was with many a matter of fashion 
and imitation, still those may be deemed fortunate 
whose existence falls on a period in which truth and 
liberal sentiments find favour and adoption. 

On the whole, the century was not worse than those 
which had preceded it. Even if the forms of govern- 
ment favoured many abuses, a more extended spirit of 
activity prevailed amongst the people than in previous 
generations; and though it is true that no extraordinarily 
great actions were performed, it is also true that no 
great occasion called for their performance. It cannot 
be denied that too much jealousy prevailed between the 
cantons, and that more reliance was often placed on 
strangers than on fellow- confederates. But Germany, 
which united might have given law to Europe, had been 
even more distracted by like errors, reduced to a mere 
battle-field for foreigners, and robbed of its most valuable 
dependencies. 



CHAP. XXL 

FROM THE FIRST YEARS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
TO THE PEACE OF ABIIENS. 

1789—1802. 

FIRST EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IN SWITZERLAND. 

IMITATION OF ITS HORRORS AT GENEVA. POLICY OF THE 

FRENCH DIRECTORY. CISALPINE REPUBLIC. — INSURRECTION 

OF THE PEASANTRY OF BASLE. DIFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT OF 

REVOLT. INSOLENCE OF COMMISSARY MENGAUD. TROOPS 

OF BRUNE AND SCHAUENBURG ENTER SWITZERLAND CAP- 
TURE OF BERNE. DEATH OF GENERAL ERLACH. ERECTION 

OF A "CONSTITUTION UNITAIRE." STRUGGLE AND SUBJEC- 
TION OF THE FOREST CANTONS. FALL OF THE OLD HELVETIC 

LEAGUE. ANARCHY AND TYRANNY. 



The Swiss governments, as well as that large portion of 
their subjects who were contented with their condition, 



17S9- 



FRENCH REVLOUTION. 



299 



and desired no alteration in it, were startled out of a 
state of perfect tranquillity by the first shock of the 
French revolution. The shifting of the whole political 
scenery of Europe surrounded them with entirely new 
embarrassments. They resembled steersmen tolerably 
capable of guiding their bark safely through the tempests 
of their native lakes ; but who found themselves now on 
unknown seas without chart or compass. The situation 
of the Swiss regiments engaged in the French service 
afforded the first reason for disquietude ; the next was 
the apprehension of infection from the principles pre- 
dominant in France. Alarming political movements 
soon began in the interior; and the solution of the 
problems which were set before Swiss politicians by the 
progress of events in the neighbouring countries was the 
more difficult the more various were the views, wants, 
and relations of the cantons, and the lands which were 
subject to them. 

It was in the latter districts, as might have been ex- 
pected, that the new ideas gained the greatest currency, 
and that the first attempts were made for their realisa- 
tion. Educated and thinking men in the subject towns 
and territories brooded resentfully on their exclusion 
from all public posts and dignities. In those cantons 
where trade and manufactures were most cultivated, it 
was regarded as an intolerable hardship by the enter- 
prising and wealthy rural proprietor, that he was hin- 
dered by oppressive regulations from purchasing the 
requisite raw materials, or from disposing of the pro- 
ducts of his industry in any quarter except to a whole- 
sale dealer of the capital. Similar resentments were 
excited by corporate privileges. Nevertheless, in the 
German regions of Switzerland, a longer time elapsed 
before the new modes of thinking, and the comparisons 
which they suggested, set the public mind in motion. 
This took place much sooner in the west, where the 
French language and neighbourhood made communi- 
cation easier ; above all, in Geneva, where nothing but 



300 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1789. 



an auspicious hour was waited for to burst asunder a 
yoke imposed by foreigners. 

A rise in the price of bread, which was imputed to 
the government, gave occasion to the long prepared ex- 
plosion. On the 26th of February, 1789, the burghers 
assailed the garrison with every thing which could be 
turned into a weapon of offence. Fire-engines with 
boiling water supplied the place of artillery : the gar- 
rison was put to the rout, and the power of the govern- 
ment overturned the more easily, as its foreign props 
had now ceased to support it. The ruling class was 
compelled to throw itself wholly on the citizens, to re- 
store the ancient liberties of the town, and to recall the 
banished heads of the representatives. But the hour was 
come for the ruin of Genevan independence. The 
country people and habitans of the town now demanded 
an equality of rights with the burghers, on the model of 
republican France ; and the latter power was induced to 
second their wishes, by the suggestions of the ex-repre- 
sentative Claviere. The malecon tents were kept for 
a while in check by troops from Berne and Zurich ; but, 
on the withdrawal of these in 1792, the country people, 
habitans and natifs, flew to arms, made themselves mas- 
ters of the town, deposed the government, and esta- 
blished, on the model of France, a national convention, 
with committees of general safety and of public welfare. 

A show of moderation and tranquillity lasted some 
time longer; but distrust and exasperation received 
continual new aliment, and the disinterested friends of 
peace could hardly prevent some furious outbreak. 
Many votes were gained to a proposed new constitution, 
by the hope of securing order and repose ; and in the 
beginning of 1794 it was adopted by a large majority. 
In April, syndics and council were again installed in 
their former functions, and the event was announced to 
Zurich and Berne with expressions of hope and con- 
fidence. Berne, however, could not resolve, on the 
instant, to give the name of confederates to these newly 
re-established authorities ; and what had been done had 



1794*' REIGN OF TERROR AT GENEVA. 301 

no effect in mitigating the violence of those who put 
themselves forwards as the organs of the multitude, 
which they first set in motion for their own purposes, 
and then were forced, in turn, to flatter its passions, in 
order to continue popular favourites. Meanwhile, the 
price of necessaries rose, while trade and industry 
stagnated ; and the repeated demands for so-styled free- 
will offerings to the public were answered by supplies 
more and more sparing. 

In order to crush, at a stroke, all resistance, and to 
furnish themselves with the necessary stores and ammu- 
nition, the party of terrorists made a nocturnal seizure 
of the arsenal in July, 1794, occupied all the posts in 
warlike array ; and filled the prisons of the town, and 
even the corn-magazine, with nearly six hundred men, 
whom they chose to designate as aristocrats ; and 
amongst whom were a number of the most respectable 
members of the magistracy, merchants, and men of 
letters. Of eight of the prisoners first examined, a 
revolutionary tribunal contented itself with sentencing 
one to death ; but the clamour and threats of the mul- 
titude worked on these unsteady judges to retract their 
verdict, and extend the same condemnation to all the 
others. The doom of four of these was commuted 
for banishment by the general assembly ; but a band of 
wretches again collected, stormed the prisons, and the 
bloody tribunal now sentenced their victims to be shot ; 
and afterwards endeavoured to excuse itself on the plea 
that this had only been done to prevent worse atrocities. 
More executions followed, which included several per- 
sons who had actively promoted revolution. Numbers 
were banished, in order to secure the ruling party a 
majority in the general assembly. The large sums 
required by a revolutionary government for the payment 
of public officers, and the armed force of the populace, 
were defrayed by imposing heavy contributions on the 
possessors of property ; indifferentists being made to 
pay double, aristocrats, sl treble amount. 

Party spirit, however, cooled by degrees ; approxi- 



802 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1796". 



mations and concessions took place between all classes 
of citizens, who felt, in common, the general ruin of 
public and private happiness ; and the disappointment 
of all the hopes which had formerly found indulgence. 
In 1796, a return to the old constitution was agreed 
upon, on condition of equality of rights being conceded 
to the old and new burghers, and the town and country 
inhabitants. The exiles returned home, and all rejoiced 
that they could again breathe freely. For two years 
more, the little republic dragged on an infirm existence ; 
till it was finally united with France in 1798, and 
forced to partake, for fifteen years, the destinies of that 
country. 

Of the men who had at different times been banished 
for political offences from Switzerland, many had taken 
refuge in the French metropolis, and endeavoured to 
persuade the republican statesmen that their enemies 
were equally those of France: their representations found 
the easier audience, as Switzerland was already regarded 
with greedy eyes by their hearers. (C At an early period 
of the revolution/' observes an English writer *, " the 
views of France were directed towards Switzerland, as 
well from its importance as a barrier on her eastern 
frontier, as from its central position between the German 
empire and Italy. The reduction, therefore, of Swit- 
zerland, was a favourite object of the republican rulers, 
and was only suspended by the dread of adding its peo- 
ple to the host of enemies who menaced France on all 
sides ; they accordingly temporised under the mask of 
friendship, and succeeded in preserving the neutrality of 
the Helvetic confederacy, by fomenting the national 
antipathy to the house of Austria. Yet even during this 
specious display of friendship, their agents industriously 
spread disaffection, and prepared the mine which was 
ready to explode on the first favourable opportunity : 
such an opportunity presented itself at the conclusion of 
the treaty of Campo Formio, which left the Swiss with- 
out an ally on the Continent. At this period the French 

* Coxe. 



1797* POlilCY OF THE FRENCH DIRECTORY. 303 

republic had acquired a colossal strength. The king of 
Sardinia, deprived of half his territory, was the vassal of 
France ; the pope, and the king of Naples, owed the 
possession of a precarious sceptre to the forbearance of 
the directory ; Prussia pertinaciously maintained her 
close connection with the new republic ; and Austria, 
vanquished by the genius of Bonaparte, had concluded 
a dishonourable peace." 

" But the French rulers were not content with planting 
the tricoloured flag on the summit of Mont Blanc, on 
the left bank of the Rhine, and at the mouth of the 
Scheldt, and with establishing the limits of their empire 
by the natural boundaries of the Pyrenees, the Alps, the 
Mediterranean and the ocean. With a view to secure 
their territories against the future aggressions of the 
continental powers, they purposed to form a series of 
dependent republics along the line of their frontiers, as 
a kind of outwork, to remove the point of attack. At 
the extremities of this line they had already established 
the Ligurian and Batavian republics ; the Cisalpine soon 
followed. A connecting link of this chain was Switzer- 
land, which covered the most vulnerable parts of the 
French territory; and, from its natural strength and 
central position, formed the citadel of Europe." * 

Besides these motives, acknowledged by the French 
themselves, their rapacity was stimulated by the trea- 
sures known to exist at Berne and elsewhere, the amount 
of which, as usual, was enormously exaggerated. What 
was required, in short, was not a motive but a pretext 
for intermeddling with the internal regulations of the 
Helvetic body. That body had avoided giving offence 
with the utmost caution ; had recognised every successive 
form of government in France ; and had turned out of 
their territories the unfortunate French emigrants who 
had fled thither for refuge from the rage of their own 
countrymen. 

The triumphs of Napoleon in Italy were concluded 
by the construction of the Cisalpine republic. The Swiss 

* See the Appendix. 



304 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1797. 



subjects of the Valteline, Chiavenna, and Bormio, were 
tempted to desire participation in the freedom thus es- 
tablished on their borders ; and Napoleon offered the 
Grisons the alternative of conceding equal rights to these 
districts, or of seeing them included in the new Cisal- 
pine state. Parties ran so high on this proposal, that no 
friendly understanding was possible ; and when the term 
allowed for reply elapsed without any being given,, Na- 
poleon put his threat into effect, and confiscated all pro- 
perty belonging to the Grisons contained in the above- 
mentioned districts. 

Such was the first encroachment on the ancient limits 
of Switzerland : shortly afterwards the bishopric of 
Basle was annexed to France. Great consternation was 
caused by these proceedings in the confederation ; but 
still more serious evils were at hand. In the canton of 
Basle the peasantry murmured loudly against the town : 
in the Aargau several towns advanced tumultuous claims 
against Berne, for the recovery of their old and chartered 
rights ; and the Pays de Vaud reclaimed its freedom 
with more impatience than ever. It was said besides, 
that a French army was already marching on Switzer- 
land; ostensibly to support the claims of the malcontents, 
but really to make themselves masters of the land for 
their own purposes. Berne and Freyburg hastily levied 
forces for the coercion of their turbulent dependencies ; 
and a diet of the confederacy was summoned at Aarau. 
Much was said and nothing done at this meeting, as the 
cantonal governments neither trusted each other nor 
their subjects. The members of the diet renewed the 
original league of the cantons, as if urged by the pre- 
sentiment of its coming dissolution. The oath had hardly 
been taken, when a messenger from Basle brought the 
intelligence that the mansions of the land-vogts were in 
flames ; that a large body of peasantry had entered the 
town, and that all the subject districts had declared 
themselves free. 

The spectacle of feebleness and fear in the authorities, 
combined with dogged resistance to the wishes of the 



1797. 



INSOLENCE OF MENGAUD. 



people, of course diffused, instead of quelling, the spirit 
of revolt. As in the thirteenth and succeeding century, 
the prerogatives of the nobles had been forced to yield to 
the claims of a class of burghers and of shepherds, so soon 
as the example of the Lombard towns, and the growth of 
public prosperity, had excited independence of feeling ; 
so likewise, in the times of which we are treating, it had 
ceased to be within the power of a privileged class to con- 
tend with success against the claims of the so called third 
order, encouraged as it was by the example of France. 
Some districts, indeed, took no part in the prevalent 
agitations, and pertinaciously adhered to the accustomed 
order of things ; others, more distinguished for enlight- 
enment and enterprise, demanded an equality of rights 
in town and country ; others, again, required the re- 
storation of ancient franchises : some regarded nothing 
as attainable but by French interference ; while nobler 
minds retained an insurmountable abhorrence for the 
agency of strangers in the internal affairs of their country. 

It became more and more evident, that the policy of 
the French directory led them to foment intestine dis- 
cord in Switzerland. For several years past it had been 
observed, that foreign emissaries set themselves to work 
upon the public opinion. A person of the name of Men- 
gaud made his appearance at Basle, under the unusual 
and equivocal title of commissary, and set his seal on 
the papers of the French embassy : this individual not 
only made no secret of his intelligence with the mal- 
contents in Switzerland, but affected to display it osten- 
tatiously. He went to Berne on the 10th of October, 
1797j, where he demanded, in a note addressed to the 
government, the dismissal of the English ambassador, 
Wickham, who had certainly exerted himself openly 
against France, but had done so as the envoy of a power 
at war with that country. Berne referred the demand 
of Mengaud to the then directing canton, as a matter 
which concerned the whole confederacy. Wickham re- 
lieved for the moment the embarrassment of the Helvetic 



x 



306 HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 1797* 

body, while he deprived the French directory of a pre- 
sent pretence for violence, by taking his departure on a 
tour into Germany ; but he left an able diplomatist 
behind him in the person of his secretary Talbot. Men- 
gaud was received at Zurich and Berne with undisguised 
aversion, and no diplomatic visits were paid him at 
either of these places. In the month of November, an 
embassy from the latter town had been sent to Paris ; 
which, though admitted to an audience of the director 
Barras, soon received a rude dismissal homewards. 

Great were the hopes infused into the disaffected 
party by the promises of Men gaud, and other subor- 
dinate agents of France ; and proportional fears were 
excited amongst the friends of the old system, including 
the greater number of public functionaries. In order 
to increase their uneasiness, Mengaud threatened the 
diet of the confederation in January, 1798, with the 
entrance of French troops into Switzerland, should 
Austria be suffered to occupy the Grisons. He travelled 
to the place of meeting at Aarau, with tricoloured flags 
flying from his carriage ; and, on his arrival there, hung 
out an immense banner in front of his house. The 
triumphant revolutionists of Basle had already formed a 
tricoloured flag of their own, by the addition of green 
to their former cantonal colours, black and white, and 
their delegate at Paris, Ochs, had hastily sketched what 
he called an Helvetic constitution, on the model of that 
of the French republic. This document was printed in 
Italian, French, and German, and distributed by Men- 
gaud, not in official quarters only, but throughout the 
whole population of the cantons. 

In the mean time, a division of the French army, 
under Menard, appeared on the western frontier; and 
the Pays de Vaud, protected by it, declared its inde- 
pendence of Berne. The Bernese government saw the 
necessity of trying the force of arms on its subjects ; and 
the command of the forces having been declined by 
councillor Erlach of Spiez, who had hitherto been one 
of the strongest assertors of aristocracy, it was con- 



1798. 



INVASION OF THE VAUD. 



307 



ferred on colonel Rudolf Weiss, who had, till then, sus- 
tained the character of a champion of the opposite 
system ; and had contributed, by a published work f, to 
the favourable temper of the partisans of Robespierre 
towards the Swiss confederation. An unusual dele- 
gation of full powers placed in his hands the whole 
military government of the Vaud. The new commander 
held conferences with the leaders of the malcontents ; 
published a treatise intended to conciliate them f , but in- 
termixed conciliation with menace. Chillon was reco- 
vered by surprise from the insurgents, and the German 
troops of Berne were moved on the frontiers of the 
Vaud. Meanwhile, general Menard was already on the 
lake of Geneva, with 10,000 men of the conquering 
army of Italy ; and to him the insurgent leaders, 
alarmed for their own safety, addressed themselves. 
Menard replied, that he w T as instructed to give them aid 
and protection ; and threatened colonel Weiss that he 
would repel force with force, if the former should per- 
sist in drawing troops around a territory already declared 
independent, and in arming the communes against 
each other. Without taking any measures of defence, 
— without even attempting to maintain himself on the 
high grounds, —Weiss withdrew to the neighbourhood of 
Yverdun. It happened, accidentally, that two French 
hussars were shot on the outposts of the Bernese army, 
because they had not immediately answered the challenge 
of the sentinels. This incident was taken up by Me- 
nard, and afterwards by the directory, as an infringe- 
ment of the law of nations, and commencement of hos- 
tilities. 

The revolution of Basle, and the entrance of French 
troops into the Pays de Vaud, rendered it impossible for 
reflecting men any longer to doubt that sweeping social 
changes were inevitable. Yet the Swiss democracies 
would not be persuaded that any one could shake their 

* Coup-d'oeil sur les relations politiques entre la republique Frangaise et 
le corps Helvetique. 1793. 
f Reveillez-vous, Suisses, le danger approche. 

x 2 



SOS 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1798. 



constitutions, or force on them a new species of freedom. 
The numerous friends of things as they were still hoped 
to steer themselves through the crisis without any great 
sacrifices, by mere dint of tenacity and delay. Many, 
moreover, flattered themselves with the notion that the 
plans of France were levelled at no wider mark than 
the Vaud ; and were prompted by a petty feeling of 
jealousy towards Berne, to see nothing in the affair but 
a mortification to that envied canton. 

It could hardly be conceived at Berne, that the 
French should have advanced without meeting any re- 
sistance up to Yverdun, while the head quarters of 
colonel Weiss were withdrawn behind Avenche. He 
was instantly dismissed from his command, which was 
transferred to general Erlach of Hindelbank ; but the 
evil effects of exorbitant discretionary powers had 
been so sensibly felt, that the opposite extreme was now 
adopted. Meanwhile, the leading statesmen of Berne 
had, at length, become convinced that concessions must 
be made to the people. Fifty-two members were" added 
to the great council from amongst the burghers, citizens 
of the minor towns, and rural inhabitants. It was 
resolved to introduce, within a year's time, a new con- 
stitution ; in which admission to every public function 
should be open to all, and due proportion should be ob- 
served in the emoluments of all public services. These re- 
solutions were laid before the directory, together with a 
demand for the withdrawal of the French troops. The 
government also stooped to make a like communication 
to Mengaud, to acquaint him with the actual political 
system of Berne, and inform him of the wish of that 
canton to preserve peace with France. Mengaud made 
just such an answer as ought to have been expected from 
him. He demanded a prompt and complete change of 
the old political system, declared that farther delays 
could not be suffered by the majesty of the French re- 
public ; and designated the persevering defenders of the 
existing order as a handful of inveterate tyrants. 

Disregarding their own positive engagements, the 



1798. ARTFUL PROPOSALS OF BRUNE. 309 

French, on the 8 th of February, took possession of the 
town of Bienne. Yet the confederates still hoped to 
conciliate France, and were encouraged in this illusion 
by general Brune, who now commanded the French 
troops, reinforced by several thousand men, and fixed 
his head quarters at Payerne. This subtle leader, who, 
without having performed a lengthened public career, 
was, to borrow a diplomatic expression, rompu dans 
les affaires, proposed, with artful blandishments, and 
with hinted hopes of peaceful adjustment, an armistice of 
fourteen days ; during which the discipline and enthu- 
siasm of the Bernese army had time to abate, indecision 
and distrust to increase, and recruits to join the French 
army. 

Meanwhile, general Schauenburg had collected a di- 
vision of troops on the frontiers of Soieure and Berne, 
equal in strength to that of Brune. The latter an- 
nounced, on the 26th of February, that he had received 
full powers to treat from the executive directory. He 
proposed his ultimatum to the Swiss delegates, that 
without farther delay they should introduce a pro- 
visional government, take measures for the establishment 
of a new constitution, with securities for freedom and 
equality, liberate all prisoners for political offences, and 
withdraw their own troops, as well as those of the other 
cantons. On the due fulfilment of these conditions, the 
French troops should be drawn off likewise ; and should 
not again enter the Swiss territory, unless the government 
called for their assistance. 

On the very day when Brune had given his inso- 
lent ultimatum, Erlach entered the great council at 
Berne, accompanied by eighty of his officers, who were 
members, like himself, of that body. In a moment of 
unusual resolution, he was invested with full powers to 
commence hostilities on the close of the armistice. 
However, two days afterwards, the delegates returned 
from Brune' s encampment at Payerne. Erlach and his 
brothers in arms were no longer present in council ; the 
rest of that body were paralysed by the imminent and 

x 3 



310 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1798. 



gigantic danger ; and the full powers which had just 
been given the general were taken away. The same 
evening, Erlach received instructions not to attack the 
French, which fired his troops with anger and suspicion, 
and tended to confirm the belief in the treachery of 
their leaders, already widely prevalent in the army. 
Brune's ultimatum, in all its principal features, was 
accepted. The delegates of Zurich, Wyss, and Tschar- 
ner, sought a conference with him, when he renewed 
his former offers in cold and peremptory language ; but 
now added a novel stipulation to them, namely, that, even 
after the confederate troops were disbanded, his should 
remain till the new constitution should be established. It 
"was affirmed, truly or otherwise, that he granted, without 
difficulty, an extension of the truce for twenty-four hours; 
notwithstanding which, the delegates^ on their return, saw 
his troops already in motion for the attack. Orders for 
the commencement of hostilities had also been forwarded 
from the council of war at Berne to the army, and two 
hours afterwards, retracted. In obedience to the first of 
these contradictory instructions, the Bernese colonel Gross 
had given notice to the French outposts that the truce 
would come to an end at ten in the evening of the 1st 
of March ; but when he withdrew his former announce- 
ment on the arrival of counter-orders, Schauenburg 
would admit no further parley. He had already at- 
tacked, without warning, the old castle of Dornach, in 
the neighbourhood of Basle, which sustained a siege of 
twenty-four hours. The attack of a Bernese division 
near Vingels was repulsed with loss, and the French 
surprised the Bernese posts at Lengnau, which they 
carried after an obstinate resistance. The town of So- 
leure capitulated, on Schauenburg's appearance before 
it. The passage across the Aar now lay open to the 
French troops. Freyburg was attacked and taken, though 
a stand was made by the Bernese garrison. 

Erlach was now compelled to withdraw his troops 
behind the Aar and the Sense ; though it was not 
without extreme reluctance that the men of Berne 



1798. 



CAPITULATION OF BERNE. 



311 



abandoned Morat. On the 3d of March, Brune de- 
stroyed one of the finest monuments of Swiss courage 
and union, the Ossuary of Morat ; and the French, 
among whom were many natives of Burgundy, ho- 
noured the bones of their ancestors with a grave, after 
an interval of more than 300 years. Now at length 
Berne, Soleure, and Freyburg proclaimed a levy en 
masse of the able-bodied men within their terri- 
tories. The Bernese army was in a dreadful state of 
confusion; particularly that division which stood di- 
rectly opposed to Brune, in which the distrust and ex- 
asperation of the soldiers were at their highest pitch. 
Officers were dismissed by their soldiers, and others put 
in their place. Colonels Stettler and Ryhiner were 
bayonetted and shot before the very gates of Berne ; and 
colonels Crusez and Goumoens fell beneath the sabre- 
strokes of their own dragoons. Nevertheless, the troops 
were again assembled under command of Grafenried, 
who was admirably supported by his officers, and re- 
pulsed the French in every attempt to charge them at 
the point of the bayonet. Eighteen cannons were 
taken from the enemy, and their loss in men besides was 
very considerable. 

The native troops had now fully recovered spirit and 
confidence; but just as Grafenried prepared to cross 
the Sense at Neueneck, the decisive intelligence ar- 
rived that Berne was in the hands of the enemy ! 
Early on the 5th, an attack had been made by Schauen- 
burg on Soleure. His force was far numerically superior 
to the Bernese; his horse artillery terrified the native 
militia by its novelty, and his cavalry was nearly eight- 
fold that of Berne in numbers. At Fraubrunnen, the 
French turned the left flank of the Bernese : in the 
Grauholz and at Breitenfeld their militia under Er- 
lach offered a brave resistance, armed with scythes and 
other agricultural implements. Men, women, and even 
children mixed, and fell in the mortal struggle. On its 
unsuccessful issue, ensued the capitulation of Berne. 

x 4 



312 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1798. 



All was lost: — the armed bands of the peasantry 
dispersed in every direction with loud accusations 
of treason against their officers, many of whom were 
slain by their own men. Amongst these was the general 
Erlach, an illustrious name in the annals of Berne. That 
unfortunate commander, and the avoyer Steiger, when 
the fortune of the day was decided, retreated towards 
the Oberland, whither they knew that arms and money 
had already been despatched by the government, and 
where they still hoped to offer an effective resistance. 
But Erlach was murdered in the way by the enraged 
fugitives, who breathed nothing but revenge for their 
imaginary betrayal, and it was only by chance that 
% Steiger did not meet a similar fate. 

Even public extremity could not restore public spirit. 
Every little canton treated, armed, and cared, for itself 
exclusively, totally regardless of the rest. Wherever 
the authorities had, till then, withheld freedom from 
their subjects, they no longer delayed to grant it; but 
bestowed emancipation with so ill a grace, as to indicate 
how gladly they would have refused it, had they dared. 

France now assumed a tone of direct command, and 
proclaimed the dissolution of the Helvetic body, and 
the establishment of a constitution unitaire, embracing 
the whole of Switzerland under one uniform system of 
government. This system announced a perfect equal- 
ity of rights between the inhabitants of the towns and of 
the villages, assigned the nomination of judges, magis- 
trates, and legislators, to the people in their primary 
assemblies, and entrusted to the government the choice 
of executive functionaries. The founders of this new 
Helvetic republic next proceeded to the more material 
objects of their mission. They levied large contributions 
on the towns, appropriated the treasures amassed at 
Berne, Zurich, Soleure, and Freyburg, and carried off 
many members of council and other persons, as hostages 
for the further payments exacted from those places. 

But the people of Uri, Nidwalden, Schwytz, and 
Glarus, were resolved not to deliver up their old inde- 



1798. FALL OF THE OLD HELVETIC LEAGUE. 313 

pendence so easily, and organised an heroic, though an 
useless, resistance under their brave leader Aloys Reding. 
The most brilliant and the most sanguinary struggle 
took place at Rothenthurm, in the neighbourhood of the 
battle-field of Morgarten. These Alpine shepherds 
combated with a spirit and success which showed them 
not unworthy of their forefathers. Thrice were the 
attacks of regular troops, four times their number, re- 
pulsed, with serious loss on the side of the enemy. But 
the vigour of this peasant militia was exhausted by 
their very successes, and they were, finally, compelled to 
accept terms from the invaders, and to bow beneath the 
yoke of the Helvetic republic. Thus ended the old 
Swiss confederation, after enduring for a term of nearly 
five centuries. i( It fell," says an enlightened native his- 
torian*, ei wot exactly for want of strength in the bands 
which held it together ; for, without any stronger bond 
of union the old confederates won their freedom, crushed 
or repelled the force of mighty antagonists, and rendered 
themselves powerful and formidable. The Swiss suc- 
cumbed in the last unfortunate struggle, because the 
feeling of duty, the lofty faith in their country and its 
fortunes, had become chilled in the bosoms of the many, 
and because the democratical cantons thought of none 
but themselves." 

While the well-instructed friends of their country 
regretted the rude violence with which every link in the 
system of society, from the Alps to the Jura, had been 
totally torn away from its ancient holdings, they could 
not fail to perceive the ultimate benefits educible from 
the general convulsion. The former aggregation of little 
states had been productive of estrangement and enmity ; 
the cantons had been proved powerless, even for self- 
defence ; separately too poor for public enterprises ; 
collectively incapable of any combined action. But now 
an opportunity seemed to be given to the Swiss people 
of becoming one great family, enjoying equal rights. 
The mass of the people, however, was not penetrated by 

* Ludwig Meyer. 



314 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1798. 



such ideas, and only deplored the breach made in their 
old habits and usages. They had, indeed, demanded 
freedom and independence, but not this melting up into 
an uniform mass. They would have preferred that every 
petty district, nay, every single valley, should become a 
free and independent canton, ruling itself in its own 
assemblies, according to its own pleasure, and only con- 
nected by federal ties with the rest of the Swiss people. 
The whole subsequent march of events tended only to 
increase the desire for a subdivided federative system of 
this kind, and the aversion for the newly established 
order. The new general government, called an executive 
directory, after its prototype at Paris, resided at Aarau 
without inspiring either respect or confidence, dependent 
on its sole protectors, the French plenipotentiaries. In 
the senate and the great council, composed of delegates 
from all the cantons, the conflicting opinions of parties 
caused an incessant wordy warfare. Out of doors the 
same parties abandoned parliamentary weapons, and as- 
serted their discordant creeds with arms in their hands. 
New and old laws and regulations were perpetually 
coming in collision. While the state was often without 
the most indispensable means for its maintenance, and 
even for the daily pay of its functionaries, the French 
plenipotentiaries, leaders, and subalterns, rioted in shame- 
less superfluities at the cost of the country, and sent to 
France the surplus of their plunder. 

The discontents of the people were considerably ag- 
gravated by the murmurs and manoeuvres of the ci-devant 
authorities ; of the monks who apprehended the abolition 
of all monasteries ; of the priests who had suffered di- 
minution of their stipends, and of the traders and artisans 
in the towns who no longer enjoyed the sweets of cor- 
porations and monopolies. They trusted to the ap- 
proaching renewal of war between France and Austria, 
and prepared to support the emperor for the expulsion 
of the French. When the whole population was sum- 
moned, in July, 1798, to take the oath of allegiance to 
the newly formed constitution, disturbances and revolts 



1798. INROADS OF FRENCH AND AUSTRIANS. 315 

took place in the Rheinthal, Oberland, Appenzell, and 
other districts. These were suppressed by military force,, 
the use of which in Nidwalden was accompanied by ex- 
traordinary circumstances of horror. Here Paul Styger, 
a capuchin, with others of the clergy, had spirited the 
people up to a desperate resistance, on the ground that 
the French constitution was an immediate work of Satan. 
They armed themselves against the overwhelming force 
of Schauenburg, against which they made head for three 
whole days, with a loss to the French of from 3000 to 
4000 men. The enemy took a merciless revenge for 
the resistance of this little band of shepherds by the 
burning of Stans and Stans-stadt, and the massacre of 
every living being which they found in these places. 
The Qth day of September, 1 798^ witnessed the slaughter 
of nearly 400 inhabitants of Nidwalden, with every 
possible circumstance of atrocity. 

W ar with France was at length renewed by the em- 
peror of Austria, and a division of his army entered the 
Grisons. A signal defeat sustained by the French troops 
near Stockach, in Swabia, the victorious advance of the 
Austrian army into Switzerland, and the removal of the 
seat of the Helvetic government from Lucerne to Berne, 
seemed to inspire the conflicting parties with renewed 
animation and fury. Swiss fought against Swiss under 
the banners of France and Austria ; tumults and revolts 
took place on account of the French conscription or in 
favour of the Austrian invasion ; battles were fought 
between foreign armies in the vallies, on the Alps, and 
on the banks of the lakes ; and horse and man clambered 
over heights which had formerly been only known to 
the chamois hunter. The Grisons and the mountainous 
lands as far as the St. Gothard, were alternately won and 
lost by French and Germans. The victorious banners 
of Austria were carried on the left as far as Zurich and 
the St. Gothard, on the right up to the banks of the 
Rhine, supported by the Russians under Suwarrow. 
Switzerland had never sustained such desolating inroads 



316 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1801. 



since the times of the Romans, Alemanni, and Bur- 
gundians. 

Many of the old superseded members of the govern- 
ment now looked forward to the speedy restoration of 
their authority, which they here and there attempted to 
recover with the assistance of the Austrian bayonets : 
even the new abbot of St. Gall resumed the exercise of 
his feudal rights, such as they had existed before the 
recent emancipation which had been granted to the 
people. The effects of this iniquitous resumption did 
not fail soon to be felt by the proud prelate himself; 
Zurich and Schaffhausen, too, were soon forced to ac- 
knowledge that the people did not wish to be replaced 
in its state of subjection. The decisive and brilliant 
victory of Massena near Zurich, and the destruction of 
Su war row's army, which had marched over the Alps 
from Italy, restored the Helvetic constitution throughout 
the whole country. Parties now supplanted and suc- 
ceeded each other in quick succession, so that none could 
remain long at the helm or consult for the public benefit. 
First of all, the legislative councils dissolved the executive 
directory, and substituted for it an executive committee ; 
then in its turn, this executive committee dissolved the 
councils, convoked a new legislature, and styled itself 
executive council. Twelve months afterwards a general 
Helvetic diet was assembled at Berne for the formation 
of a new and improved constitution : this, like the former 
deliberative bodies, was arbitrarily deposed from its 
functions, and a newest-of-all constitution established, 
in October, 1801. Aloys Reding, the victor of Ro- 
thenthurm, as the foremost Swiss landamman, was placed 
at the head of the senate ; but as he neither possessed 
the confidence of the French rulers, nor that of those 
who detested all recurrence to the old state of things, a 
new act of arbitrary power deposed him from the pre- 
sidency of the council. 

These continual changes of administration were looked 
upon with absolute indifference by the Swiss people, who 
only sighed at the total interruption of law and order, 



1801. PREVALENCE OF FANATICISM. SI 7 

the increase of taxes, and the lawless acts of the French 
soldiery. The Valais more particularly suffered by the 
military tyranny to which it was subjected. The object 
of France was to separate it from Switzerland, in order 
to keep a route open across the Alps into Italy. 

In the same degree as popular consideration ceased 
to attend the ever- changing, but equally odious, as- 
pects of the new government, individual opinions and 
wild fancies obtained prevalence. Mystical views were 
propagated in Appenzell ; and the anabaptists reared 
their heads once more in Berne and Zurich. The 
quiet of the former town and its neighbourhood 
was suddenly disturbed by a swarm of fanatics from 
Arnsoldingen. Two years before, a quack doctor and 
fanatic, by name Antony Unternerer, had fixed his abode 
in that village. A certain flow of language, combined 
with prepossessing manners, and the profuse employ- 
ment of benedictory formulas in human diseases, as well 
as in those of cattle, had gained for this fellow the 
confidence of the multitude. He held meetings in 
which particular parts of the New Testament were inter- 
preted in a new and peculiar manner ; and his adhe- 
rents ceased their attendance on the ordinary divine 
service. Unternerer addressed a summons in writing 
to the supreme tribunal of Berne, to appear, with all its 
prisoners and their keepers, in the cathedral church on 
the morning of Good Friday, when the Saviour of the 
world would ascend the pulpit, and hold his judgment. 
He also summoned all his disciples to meet at Berne on 
the same day. Many of them had already remained 
during several days assembled together; and, anticipating 
the coming judgment, had transferred their worldly 
possessions to others. Curiosity drew a multitude toge- 
ther from all quarters. Unternerer himself was an- 
nounced as Saviour by his adherents ; and seditious 
projects peeped out under the mantle of fanaticism. 
However, such a wholesome effect was produced by 
the arrest of the ringleader, the consignment of his 
most conspicuous followers to the lunatic hospital, and 



318 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 



1802. 



the billetting of dragoons in the houses of others, that the 
poor enthusiasts soon came to their senses, lamented the 
error of their ways, and the transfer of their properties. 

The peace of Amiens, betwixt France and the other 
belligerent powers, in consequence of which the French 
garrisons were drawn home out of Switzerland, af- 
forded opportunity to the party and provincial spirit 
to show itself with new vigour. On the 12th of 
July, Montrichard, the French resident in Switzer- 
land, communicated in an extra- official note to the 
Helvetic landamman, Bolder, that he had received 
commands from the minister of w r ar to hold himself, 
with the troops under his orders, in readiness for 
instant return to France. The landamman laid tnis 
note before the then executive council, who were con- 
siderably embarrassed by its import, and addressed 
themselves to Montrichard and to the Swiss ambassador 
at Paris, to petition for a postponement of the measure. 
But shortly afterwards, Boizot, secretary of the Helvetic 
embassy, arrived from Paris with Talleyrand's note, 
Vvdiich fixed for the approaching 20th of July the com- 
plete evacuation of Switzerland. It was now out of the 
question for the heads of the Helvetic government to 
oppose themselves to a measure invoked by the wishes 
of a large majority. Accordingly the executive council 
did its best to assume an unconstrained and easy attitude; 
and with all expedition voted its liveliest thanks to the 
first consul for his purpose of withdrawing his troops 
from Switzerland, which they hailed as the highest 
proof of his benevolence and respect for the independ- 
ence of the Helvetic nation. The reply of the French 
minister was couched in terms of disinterested delicacy, 
which almost seemed ironical. He talked of the French 
troops as the battalions which the first consul had con-, 
tented to leave in Switzerland on the conclusion of peace. 
He based the proposed measure on the confidence en- 
tertained by the first consul in the virtues of the Hel- 
vetic people, who were now better agreed_, as he said, 
on the principles of political organisation, and in whose 



1802. 



FRENCH TROOPS WITHDRAWN. 



319 



attachment the government would find sufficient securi- 
ties for the maintenance of order and tranquillity. (i The 
Helvetic government could not but regard this resolution 
as a pledge of the consul's confidence in its friendly in- 
tentions and policy, and of his disinclination to meddle 
with the internal affairs of other nations." 

It is impossible to assign with any certainty the mo- 
tives by which this ambiguous language and conduct 
were dictated. The first consul may have meant to 
give a popular example of moderation and respect for 
the faith of treaties ; or he may have designed a covert 
chastisement for the feeble attempts at independence 
made by the Helvetic government, and its refusal of 
unconditional acquiescence in the projected separation 
of the Valais ; or he may have wished to extort an 
express prayer for the stay of his troops, or to revive 
the struggle of parties, and compel the Helvetic govern- 
ment to throw itself into the arms of France, and urge 
him, as though against his will, to assume the part ot 
arbiter and ruler ; or, finally, perhaps, the .best solution 
of his conduct may be found by supposing the com- 
bination of all or most of these motives. 

Conformably with the system thus enforced upon 
therm, the executive council made known to the Swiss 
people the departure of the French troops, as a gracious 
boon, the offer of which they had eagerly accepted. In 
effect, the removal of these troops was performed with 
such celerity, that none were left behind but the sick 
in the hospitals, and a handful of men here and there 
to guard whatever French property was not of a move- 
able description. 

The news of the retreat of the French troops, 
and the ill-concealed uneasiness of the government, 
flew through the country with wonderful rapidity, and 
every where roused the concealed but numerous ene- 
mies of the existing order, who had hitherto lurked 
inactively, as it were in scattered cantonments. The 
Valais declared itself independent. Uri, Schwytz 
and Unterwalden took up arms against the Helvetic 



320 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1803. 



government. The town of Zurich, likewise, threw 
off allegiance to it; an example which was speedily- 
followed by Schaffhausen and Basle. A general levy 
took place in the Aargau against Berne : the helpless 
Helvetic government fled for refuge to Lausanne, while 
a diet was held in Schwytz for the restoration of the 
old league. The feeble body of troops in the pay of 
the government were driven from the interior of the 
country, and followed their employers into the Vaud : 
every where the opposite factions prepared for active 
hostilities ; the towns planned the destruction of the 
general government; the peasants armed for their freedom 
against the pretensions of the towns ; and the Pays de 
V aud arrayed itself in defence of Helvetic unity. Blood 
had already flowed, and civil war appeared inevitable, 
when Napoleon turned his eyes again upon Switzerland, 
and commanded peace in a tone which was not apt to 
meet with resistance. 

£( Inhabitants of Switzerland ! " (such were the terms 
of a declaration addressed by him through general 
Bapp to the cantons of the Helvetic republic,) u you 
have presented, during two years, a melancholy spec- 
tacle. Sovereign power has alternately been seized by 
opposite factions, whose transitory and partial sway has 
only served to illustrate their own incapacity and weak- 
ness. If you are left to yourselves any longer, you will 
cut one another to pieces for years, without any prospect 
of coming to a rational understanding. Your intestine 
discord never could be terminated without the effective 
interposition of France. I had resolved not to mix in 
your affairs ; but I cannot and will not view with indif- 
ference those calamities to which I now perceive you 
exposed. I retract my former resolution. I offer myself 
as your mediator, and will exert my mediation with that 
energy which becomes the powerful nation in whose 
name I speak. Five days after reception of the pre- 
sent declaration, the senate shall assemble at Berne, 
to nominate three deputies to be sent to Paris, and 
each canton will also be admitted to send delegates 



1803. 



NOMINATION OF DEPUTIES. 



321 



thither. All citizens who have held public employments 
during the last three years may also appear at Paris to 
deliberate by what means may best be effected the re- 
storation of concord and the reconciliation of parties. 
Every rational man must perceive that my purposed 
mediation is a blessing conferred on Switzerland by that 
Providence, which, amidst so many concurring causes 
of social dissolution, has always preserved your national 
existence and independence. It would be painful to 
think that destiny had singled out this epoch, which 
has called to life so many new republics, as the hour 
of destruction to one of the oldest commonwealths in 
Europe." 

The Helvetic senate instantly replied to this announce- 
ment, by declaring that it received, with lively gratitude, 
this new proof of the friendly dispositions of the first 
consul, and would conduct itself in all points in con- 
formity with his wishes. In a proclamation, addressed 
to the Helvetic people, after some allusion to the mighty 
and uplifted arm of the mediator, it recommended union, 
tranquillity, and calm expectation. The cantonal diets 
met to elect deputies to Paris. The several communes 
also were permitted to despatch delegates thither at their 
own expense. The mandate of Napoleon, and the pre- 
sence of his soldiers, induced conflicting parties to sus- 
pend their hostilities, and tacitly, at least, to acquiesce 
in his mediation, as they could come to no agreement 
with each other. 



322 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND, 



1803. 



CHAP. XXII. 

FROM THE ACT OF MEDIATION TO THE PRESENT TIMES. 

ACT OF MEDIATION. ITS EFFECTS. — FALL OF NAPOLEON. 

DECLARATION OF NEUTRALITY BY THE SWISS DIET. PRO- 
CLAMATION OF PRINCE SCHWARTZENBERG. AUSTRIAN INVA- 
SION. CONGRESS OF VIENNA. RECOGNITION OF THE XXII 

CANTONS. SWITZERLAND A Px\RTY TO THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

FOREIGN POLICE. SURVEILLANCE OF THE PRESS. RE- 
VIVAL OF THE JESUITS. EDUCATION, ETC. CONCLUSION. 

On the 10th of December, 1803, Swiss delegates were 
received in the office of foreign affairs at Paris, to hear 
a note of Bonaparte read, in which he addressed them 
as president of the French and Cisalpine republics, and 
laid down the basis of his intended mediation. "A 
federal constitution," he said, " is a point of prime ne- 
cessity for you. Nature herself has adapted Switzerland 
for it. What you want is an equality of rights among 
the cantons, a renunciation of all family privileges, and 
the independent federative organisation of each canton. 
The central constitution may be easily arranged after- 
wards. The main points for your people are neutrality, 
promotion of trade, and frugal administration : this is 
what I have always said to your delegates when they 
asked my advice ; but the very men who seemed to be 
the best aware of its truth, turned out to be the most 
obstinately wedded to their privileges. They attached 
themselves, and looked for support, to the enemies of 
France. The first acts of your insurgents were to appeal 
to the privileged orders, annihilate equality, and insult 
the French people. No party shall triumph ; no counter- 
revolution take place. In case of violation of neutrality, 
your government must decide upon making common 
cause with France." 

On the 12th, Bonaparte received a select number 
of the Swiss deputation, to whom he farther addressed 
himself as follows : — " The only constitution fit for 



1803. ACT OF MEDIATION. 323 

Switzerland, considering its small extent and its poverty, 
is such a one as shall not involve an oppressive load of 
taxation. Federalism weakens larger states by splitting 
their forces, while it strengthens small ones by leaving 
a free range to individual energies/' He added, with an 
openness peculiar to great characters, and unequivocally 
indicative of good will, " When I make any demand of 
an individual, he does not often dare to refuse it ; but 
if I am forced to apply myself to a crowd of cantonal 
governments, each of them may declare itself incom- 
petent to answer. A diet is called : a few months time 
is gained ; and the storm blows over." 

Almost every word of the first consul during these 
negotiations has historical value. Most of his expres- 
sions wear a character of greatness ; all of them afford a 
clue to the system on which he acted. One or two pas- 
sages, taken at random here and there, will suffice for a 
specimen. " It is the democratic cantons which distin- 
guish you, and draw on you the eyes of the world. It 
is they which do not allow the thought of melting you 
up with other states to gain any coherence or consistency. 
The permission to settle wherever they please, in pur- 
suit of their vocation, must be extended to all natives 
of Switzerland. The small cantons are said to be averse 
to this principle ; but who on earth would ever think 
of troubling them by settling amongst them ? France 
will re-open a source of profit in favour of these poorer 
cantons, by taking additional regiments into her pay. 
France will do this, not because she needs additional 
troops, but because she feels an interest in attaching these 
democracies.'' 

The Act of Mediation, which resulted from these con- 
ferences, restored the old federative system ; but not 
without introducing very considerable improvements. 
The amnesty announced by it precluded all persecutions, 
and the new agitations necessarily arising from them. 
All servitude and all privilege were abolished ; while 
equality of rights and freedom of industry were esta- 
blished. The mischievous freedom formerly enjoyed 

y 2 ' ' 



324 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1803. 



by the several cantons of entering into hostilities or 
alliances against each other was quite put an end to. In 
future, they could only use their arms against the com- 
mon enemy ; and the objects of the whole league could 
no longer be frustrated by the humours of its individual 
members. 

The dissolution of the Helvetic general government 
followed naturally on the completion of the above-men- 
tioned arrangements; and soon afterwards Napoleon re- 
called his troops from Switzerland. The people, in 
almost every part of the country, returned quietly to 
their usual occupations, and tendered their allegiance to 
the new order of things. In the canton of Zurich alone, 
several communes refused the oaths ; complaining of 
the difficulties newly thrown in the way of the redemp- 
tion of tithes, ground-rent, and other burdens. They 
w T ould listen to no friendly representations ; but com- 
mitted acts of violence on unoffending functionaries ; 
set fire to the castle of Wadenschwyl ; and finally took to 
arms. The prolonged disorders of former years had 
accustomed them to lawless self-defence ; but the insur- 
rection was soon suppressed by the aid of the neighbour- 
ing cantons, combined with the well-affected part of the 
Zurichers. The ringleader, John James Willi, a shoe- 
maker in the village of Horgen, and others of his more 
conspicuous comrades, were punished with death. The 
less distinguished rioters suffered imprisonment, and 
forty-two offending communes were visited with a war- 
tax of above 200,000 florins. It was well that the 
first flame of revolt was speedily extinguished, before it 
had time to spread itself through the country. Parties 
remained every where unreconciled ; and each ima- 
gined nothing to be required for their predominance 
but the fall of the new order of things. The friends of 
Helvetic unity still murmured at the cantonal partition 
of the country. The monasteries murmured as they 
felt their existence threatened; and Pankratius, the 
ci-devant abbot of St. Gall, openly stigmatised the inha- 
bitants of that district as contumacious vassals of the 



1813. 



FALL OF NAPOLEON. 



325 



empire. Many of the country people murmured, who 
wished for landsgemeinde, on the model of the original 
cantons. Many patrician and city families murmured 
that their privileges were swept away, and the peasantry 
no longer their subjects. The majority of the people, 
however, wished for nothing but peace and quiet, and 
decidedly adhered to the existing order of things, and 
the rights which they had acquired under that order. 

Thus the peace of the country remained for the most 
part undisturbed ; and a series of comparatively pros- 
perous years followed. The energies of the Swiss had 
been awakened by the years of revolution and of civil 
war, and displayed themselves in a hitherto unprece- 
dented degree. They no longer stood apart from each 
other as formerly, like strangers ; but had been made 
better acquainted by the storms of social collision. The 
concerns of each canton were now interesting to all. 
Journals and newspapers, which had formerly been 
suppressed by timid governments, instructed the people 
in useful knowledge, and drew its attention to public 
affairs. The Swiss of all cantons formed societies for 
the furtherance of objects of common utility ; for the 
encouragement of various arts and sciences, and for the 
maintenance of concord and patriotism. The canal of 
the Linth formed a lasting monument of this newly re- 
awakened public spirit. 

Since the people had ceased to be viewed as in a state 
of perpetual infancy, a new impulse was given to trade 
and industry, which were now no longer cramped and 
confined, as formerly, by corporate restrictions and mono- 
polies. The participation in public affairs allowed to 
all free citizens enforced a mild and equitable con- 
duct on the governments. Schools were increased and 
improved throughout the country ; the military force 
was newly organised ; and, on the whole, a greater 
number of laudable objects were provided for in the 
space of ten years, than had been thought of in the pre- 
vious century. 

When the throne of Napoleon sunk under the power 
y 3 



326 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1813. 



of the allies, the public- spirited part of the Swiss nation 
fondly imagined that the hour was come in which their 
country's honour and independence might be established 
on a firmer footing than ever. To preserve the benefits 
gained to the land by his act of mediation was the wish 
of a large majority of the people. If the Swiss had 
sometimes felt, along with others, the iron arm of that 
formidable despot, (who had, however, spared them more 
than any neighbouring population,) yet his gift of a con- 
stitution had become deservedly dear to them. It had dried 
up innumerable sources of discord. Under it a fellow- 
feeling, never before experienced, had been diffused in 
the same degree as individual pride had been humbled. 
The cessation of a state of subjection, wherever it had 
before existed, had decupled the number of confederates, 
and ail restraints on free communication betwixt one 
canton and another had been removed. 

The cantons sent their contingents for the protection 
of the frontiers, voted extraordinary imposts for their 
maintenance, and a diet was assembled at Zurich with 
unanimous instructions from its constituents. This body 
declared with one voice its resolution " to observe a 
conscientious and impartial neutrality with regard to all 
the high belligerent powers," expressing, at the same time, 
its full anticipation that " the same would be acknow- 
ledged upon their part." It addressed itself as follows 
to the confederates: — <c The great and only end of all 
our endeavours is to maintain this neutrality by every 
means in our power ; to protect our country's freedom 
and independence ; to preserve its soil inviolate, and 
to defend its constitution." The senate of Berne ex- 
pressed itself as follows : — " Our object is to guard the 
pacific borders of our country inviolate from the march 
of foreign armies ; we are unanimously resolved, how- 
ever, at all events, to maintain tranquillity, order, and 
security in our canton by all the means which stand in 
our power/' 

Such was the general sense of the Swiss people. Not 
such, however, was the sense of the great families in the 



1813. 



AUSTRIAN INVASION. 



327 



once dominant towns of the confederation, Many of 
these wished to see their country invaded by foreign 
armies, by aid of which they hoped to restore the old 
league of the thirteen cantons, with all its hated ap- 
pendages of sovereignty and servitude, which had 
vanished from the face of the land in 1798. 

The Swiss delegates were received in a friendly man- 
ner by the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia ; 
but no direct recognition of their neutrality was vouch- 
safed to them. The satellites of these monarchs gave 
them distinctly to understand that Switzerland was re- 
garded and would be treated as nothing else than as a 
limb of the French system. A large Austrian force was 
collected on the frontiers, particularly in the neighbour- 
hood of Basle ; yet many still believed that a determined 
vindication of neutrality would not be put down by 
violence. In the mean time, the Swiss delegates were 
stopped at Freyburg in Brisgau on their return home- 
wards from Frankfort, and their letters were intercepted. 
A general enervation seemed to have spread itself over 
the conduct of the affairs of the confederation at this 
crisis. There is no ground for supposing that the men 
who led their forces, and presided in their governments, 
acted the part of secret conspirators against the order of 
things which they professed to defend. But when the 
overwhelming powers of the allies came pouring in upon 
them j when these were joined by kings who owed their 
crowns to Napoleon ; when even the French ambassador 
dissuaded reinforcement of the frontier cordon ; when, 
in short, the ancient state of things renewed its sway on 
every side ; while a decided popular will showed itself 
nowhere; opposition was in a manner overwhelmed by 
the force of circumstances. 

A proclamation, couched in terms of mildness and of 
amity, was issued by prince Schwartzenberg, the Aus- 
trian commander-in-chief; and at the same time count 
Capo d'Istria declared on his arrival in Zurich, that 
" the monarchs could not recognise a neutrality which, 
in the existing situation of Switzerland, must be nothing 

y 4 



328 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 



1813. 



more than nominal. The armies of trie allied powers 
hoped to find none but friends there. Their majesties 
pledged themselves solemnly not to lay down their arms 
until they should have secured the restoration to Switzer- 
land of the territories wrested from her by France — (a 
pledge which we shall presently see was adhered to but 
indifferently). They disclaimed all wish of meddling 
with her internal constitution ; but at the same time 
could not allow her to remain under foreign influence. 
They would recognise her neutrality from that day forth 
in which she became free and independent." 

The Austrian army marched over the Rhine on the 
21st of December, 1813, through the territories of Basle, 
Aargau, Soleure, and Berne, into France. During the 
first months of the following year the burdens, and even 
the dangers of war, were felt very severely in the northern 
and western parts of Switzerland, particularly in Basle, 
which received much annoyance from the obstinate de- 
fence of Huningen, and the hostile disposition of the 
commander of that place. Geneva, too, while she wel- 
comed in anticipation the new birth of her ancient inde- 
pendence, saw herself suddenly surrounded with the 
actual horrors of warfare, and threatened with a regular 
siege. The continual passage of large bodies of troops 
brought malignant fevers and maladies in their train, 
and it became more and more difficult to supply them 
with provisions. 

On the entrance of the Austrian troops, Berne set 
the example of abolishing the act of mediation, and re- 
claimed the restoration of the predominance which she 
had previously enjoyed in the Helvetic body. The 
example was followed first by Soleure and Freyburg, and 
then by Lucerne. In Zurich, too, the diet declared the 
act of mediation, by virtue of which it was sitting, null 
and void, and drew up a plan for a new confederation of 
the nineteen cantons. But this was not enough for some 
of the men in power at that time, who demanded nothing 
short of the restoration of the old league of the thirteen 
cantons, and had already summoned the Pays de Vaud 



1814. 



CABALS AND TUMULTS. 



329 



and the Aargau to return under the government of Berne. 
These cantons, however, resolutely rejected the proposal. 

The diet, which was again convoked at Zurich, and 
consisted of delegates newly elected hy all the nineteen 
cantons, was now the only feeble bond which kept the 
Helvetic body together. Interested voices were raised 
on every side for annihilating or mutilating the last 
constructed cantons, which for sixteen years had enjoyed 
the boon of freedom and independence. Zug demanded 
a part of its former subject lands from the Aargau ; Uri 
the Val Levantina from the canton of Tessin ; Glarus 
the district of Sargans from the canton of St. Gall ; the 
prince abbot Pancrace his former domains and sove- 
reignties in the Thurgau ; Schwytz and Glarus com- 
bined to demand compensation for their privileges over 
the districts of Uznach, Gaster, Wesen, and Ersatz ; 
Unterwalden, Uri, and Schwytz, united in a similar 
demand for compensation for the sovereign rights which 
had formerly been possessed by them in Aargau, Thur- 
gau, St. Gall, and on the Tessin. 

In these cabals and commotions Zurich, Basle, and 
Schaffhausen displayed the least of prejudice or passion ; 
while the Aargau and the Vaud showed themselves 
worthy of their freedom by the spirited resolution of 
their people. In the lands and towns of Basle, Soleure, 
and Zurich, it was proposed to espouse the cause and 
rally round the standard of the Aargau. Berne, how- 
ever, avoided open hostilities, and even offered to recog- 
nise the independence of the Vaud on certain conditions, 
which were rejected by the latter. Aargau now made 
menacing demonstrations, and a dangerous ferment 
showed itself in the Oberland. Here, as in many 
other places, the jealousy and suspicion of the various 
parties came into play, in proportion as discussion was 
broached on the limits to be assigned to the rights of the 
people and their governments. News were daily received 
of scattered plots and insurrections, of imprisonments 
and banishments, in various places. The town of So- 
leure called for the protection of a Bernese garrison 



330 



HISTORY OP SWITZERLAND. 



1814. 



against the threatened attacks of its own people. Swiss 
troops were precipitately despatched to the banks of the 
Tessin to prevent the breaking out of civil war ; while 
other troops were sent into the canton of St. Gall to put 
an end to a scene of absolute confusion. 

While Switzerland was thus given up to a state of such 
disquietude, that blood had already flowed in more than 
one district, and the gaols of several towns were filled 
with prisoners, the plenipotentiaries of the great powers 
were sitting in congress at Vienna, to establish the peace 
of Europe on a durable foundation. The allies had 
already allowed the addition to the Helvetic body of 
Geneva, as well as of the Valais, and the Prussian prin- 
cipality of Neufchatel. Swiss delegates made their ap- 
pearance with equal promptitude in the imperial metro- 
polis on the Danube, as they had done eleven years 
before in the capital of France. But the politics of 
Europe moved no faster at Vienna than those of Swit- 
zerland did at the diet of Zurich. No settlement of 
Swiss affairs had been made, when the sudden news oi 
Napoleon's landing from Elba, and his triumphal march 
through France, awakened European diplomacy once 
more from its slumbers. The diet called to arms the 
half contingent of 15,000 men for the defence of the 
frontiers. Two battalions of the Vaud were detached 
hastily to Geneva, and the same canton received as friends 
and comrades the troops of Berne, against which it had 
taken up arms a month before. The most important 
elements of discord seemed to have disappeared — the 
most inveterate enemies to be reconciled. 

On the 20th of March, 1815, the definitive arrange- 
ments of the allied powers were promulgated. The 
existing nineteen cantons were recognised, and the 
increase of their number to two-and-twenty confirmed, 
by the accession of Geneva, Neufchatel, and the Valais. 
The canton of Vaud received back the Dappenthal, 
which had been taken from it by France. Bienne and 
the bishopric of Basle were given to Berne by way of 
compensation for its former sovereign rights over the 



1817« SWITZERLAND IN THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 331 

Vaud. One moiety of the customs received in the Val 
Levantina was assigned to Uri ; the prince abbot Pan- 
crace, and his ci-devant functionaries, were indemnified 
with 8000 florins yearly. A decision was also given on 
the indemnification of those Bernese who had possessed 
jurisdictions in the Pays de Vaud, and on many other 
points in dispute. The complaints of the Grisons alone 
were disregarded — Chiavenna, the Valteline, and Bormio, 
which had now become the property of Austria, were 
neither restored, nor any compensation for them given, 
notwithstanding the clause to the contrary in prince 
Schwartzenberg's proclamation. 

The cantons now remodelled their respective consti- 
tutions in the midst of agitations of all kinds. Those 
in which the supreme power is assigned to the lands- 
gemeinde for the most part removed the restrictions on 
the popular prerogative, which had been introduced by 
the act of mediation, and approximated anew to pure 
democracy. In the city cantons, the capitals recovered, 
though in various modifications and proportions, a pre- 
ponderance in the system of representation. Even in 
these privileged places, however, many friends of the 
public weal remained true to the conviction tried and 
proved by past experience (and about to receive after no 
long period additional confirmation from the march of 
events), that participation of the lesser towns and rural 
districts in public functions was a requisite condi- 
tion for the permanence of tranquillity ; and that the 
members introduced from these remoter parts of the 
country would form vigorous roots of the slender stem of 
authority, and fix them wide and deep in a republican 
soil. 

From 1815 till 1830 no political movements of any 
extent or importance disturbed the outward semblance 
of repose in the Helvetic body. In 1817, the con- 
federates were led by the invitation of the emperor 
Alexander into a signal deviation from the policy of 
their forefathers. They entered into a close alliance 
with Austria, Russia, and Prussia ; and allowed them- 



332 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1817. 



selves to be mixed up with the system of the great 
powers, by giving their adhesion to the Holy Alliance, 
unmindful of the lessons left by the Swiss of old times, 
whom the whole force of the empire could not frighten 
into the petticoat league. But the new alliance held 
itself destined to higher ends than that of Swabia, 
although in both perhaps the high contracting parties 
went to work with equal singleness of purpose. The 
holy alliance aimed at nothing less than the attainment 
of the loftiest ends of the purest cosmopolitism ! — the 
realisation of that perpetual peace which had hitherto 
been regarded as a fugitive thought of Henry IV., or 
as a philanthropic vision of the abbe St. Pierre. 

On the conclusion of the war of liberation from 
Napoleon, an opinion which the allied powers had en- 
couraged by their promises became prevalent through 
great part of Germany — that the efforts of the people 
should be requited by the grant of representative con- 
stitutions. The realisation of this object was pursued 
by open and secret means, which soon aroused attention 
and mistrust on the part of the governments. Investi- 
gations were set on foot, which were followed up by 
penal inflictions ; and many of the accused parties 
made their escape into Switzerland. A similar course 
was taken by some Italians, on the suppression of the 
Piedmontese revolts, and the abortive revolution of 
Naples. Natives of France, moreover, who had given 
offence to their government, either by republican 
principles, or by adherence to the cause of Napoleon, 
in like manner sought a place of refuge in Switzerland. 
These occurrences did not fail to give umbrage to se- 
veral cabinets, which was increased by the friendly 
welcome and assistance afforded to the fugitives from 
Greece. It never seemed to occur to foreign potentates, 
what a blessing in the vicissitudes of European affairs 
were the existence of a land to which political victims 
of all parties might resort as an inviolable sanctuary, 

The year 1823, which, it will be remembered, was 
that of the French invasion of Spain under Louis XVIII. 



1823. 



FOREIGN FOLICE. THE PRESS. 



333 



seemed an epoch of especially unfriendly dispositions in 
more than one European court against Switzerland. 
There were personages who would willingly have used 
these dispositions to effect some limitation of Helvetic 
independence ; but their influence w r as either insufficient 
for that purpose in the cabinets to which they belonged, 
or Europe seemed as yet not ripe for success in such an 
experiment. Meanwhile the remonstrances and demands 
of continental powers afforded matter of anxious con- 
sultation to the Helvetic diet; and their usual subjects 
of discussion were increased by two new topics, — foreign 
police, and surveillance of the press. % 

It was resolved that both these points touched the 
prerogatives of the separate cantons, and therefore did 
not admit of decision at any general diet. An invi- 
tation was accordingly issued to the governments of all 
the cantons, exhorting them to adopt vigorous measures, 
in order that nothing might find its way into news- 
papers and journals inconsistent with proper respect to 
friendly governments. With regard to foreign police 
it was proposed to take measures for preventing the 
entrance or residence of such strangers as had left their 
country on account of crimes, or efforts at disturbance 
of the public repose ; and for providing that no fo- 
reigners should be admitted except such as could show 
certificates or passports from their respective govern- 
ments. 

In many of the cantons these demands were met by 
a ready alacrity, not only to urge their execution in their 
full extent, but even to improve on them by subjecting 
discussion of domestic as well as of foreign affairs to 
strict surveillance. On the other hand, in more en- 
lightened parts of the confederacy, it was thought that 
public discussion and the old right of sanctuary should 
be guarded frorrt every species of encroachment. The 
diets continued to busy themselves with deliberations 
on both subjects. Returning tranquillity diminished 
the uneasiness of the cabinets ; and, by consequence, 

* See the Appendix. 



334 



HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 



1823. 



their inquisitive and minute attention to Switzerland. 
Individuals lost the importance which had formerly- 
been ascribed to them, and the sojourn of strangers in 
Switzerland again became freer. The press occasioned 
more prolonged discussions at the diets and in several 
of the councils ; but in the midst of these it obtained 
more and more freedom, and in some districts shook 
off all its former restrictions. 

During these years an interest in church affairs dif- 
fused itself amongst laymen, as well as amongst theo- 
logians by profession. In the educated classes religious 
indifferentism became less frequent ; while the genuine 
spirit of tolerance made progress. This tendency, like 
every other widely extended mental movement, had its 
questionable as well as its pleasing features. Shocking 
ebullitions of fanaticism are reported to have taken place 
in Zurich, Berne, and other cantons. A footing was 
gained in Freyburg and the Yalais by the revived order 
of Jesuits ; and the friends of human improvement 
could not regard, without anxiety, their influence in 
ecclesiastical matters, and in education. 

In the latter department much has been done in every 
part of Switzerland, though much still remains to be 
desired. Those restrictions of the chairs in universities 
and academies to the natives of particular localities, 
which formed so complete a counterpart to the old cor- 
poration privileges, have come to an end in almost all 
the principal towns of Switzerland ; where foreigners, or 
Swiss of other cantons, hold a distinguished place at the 
head of learned establishments. Many branches of 
knowledge, once neglected, have been diffused and per- 
fected. The name of Pestalozzi has obtained deserved 
celebrity throughout all Europe, and even beyond its 
limits, as well on account of the practical improvements 
which he made in particular parts of elementary instruc- 
tion, as of the impulse which he gave to the cause of 
general education. The culture of the mind and the soil 
are both indebted to Fellenberg, whose agricultural es- 
tablishments, besides their direct utility, have been above 



1830. EDUCATION, ETC. CONCLUSION. 335 

all efficacious, by attracting the attention of the educated 
classes, and giving a scientific direction to husbandry, 
which is equally distinct from that of mere routine as 
of mere theory. The removal of former restrictions has 
encouraged the progress of industry, and the spirit of 
invention and enterprise. 

Such was the course of affairs up to the memorable 
year 1830, when the mere vibration of those mighty 
explosions, which shook the social atmosphere from Paris 
to Warsaw, brought the popular masses in Switzerland 
down on her half-renewed aristocracies, like the ava- 
lanche, which the slightest sound precipitates on her 
valleys. The constitutional changes introduced in the 
cantons have not yet acquired sufficient consistence to 
come within the province of history ; nor is a Swiss re- 
volution now an event of European interest.* The fate 
of empires no longer waits the arbitrement of Alpine 
shepherds ; and the masses of modern warfare laugh to 
scorn individual heroism. But the triumphs of peace 
are yet reserved for Switzerland : her standard shows 
the trois couleurs of education, economy, industry ; 

" AND OF THAT EMPIRE THERE SHALL BE NO END." 



* See the Appendix. 



APPENDIX. 



Page 46. 

The dignity of history, it is hoped, will not be offended by 
the insertion here of a ballad, entitled " The Count of Haps- 
burg" translated from the German of Schiller, as it affords a 
pleasing version of the legendary ornaments with which popu- 
lar tradition loved to grace the rise of its hero. Tschudi, who 
has furnished the foundation for it, further relates, that the 
priest, to whom this incident with Rudolph occurred, after- 
wards became chaplain to the archbishop of Mentz ; and, at the 
first imperial election which followed the interregnum, contri- 
buted not a little to turn that prelate's thoughts on the count 
of Hapsburg : — 

'Twas at his crowning festival, 

Rob'd in imperial state, 
In Aix-la-Chapelle's ancient hall 

The good king Rudolph sate. 
His viands bore the Palatine, 
Bohemia serv'd the sparkling wine, 

And all th 5 Elective Seven * 
Lowly the lord of earth surround, 
As the glorious sun is girt around 

With his starry choir of heaven. 

Crowds from the high balcony gaze 

In joy tumultuous pressing, 
And mix with the mounting hymns of praise 

Full many a murmur'd blessing : 
For ended at last are the crownless years, 
With their harvest of ruin, of blood and tears, 

* The seven princes who exercised the right of giving, or selling, the 
empire, were the archbishops of Mentz, Trier, and Cologne, the elector 
palatine, Brandenburg, Bohemia, and Saxony. 

Z 



338 



APPENDIX. 



Earth owns a judge once more. 
Ended at last is the reign of steel ; 
No more the feeble dread to feel 

The gauntlet-grasp of power. 

And the Kaiser uplifts his goblet bright, 

As he speaks with blithesome voice : — 
" Fair is the feast, and proud the sight ; 

Mine heart might well rejoice: 
Yet miss I the minstrel, the bringer of pleasure, 
The soother of hearts with his magic measure, 

The teacher of lore divine. 
So I have held in my youthful prime, 
And the lessons I learn'd in my knightly time 

As Kaiser shall still be mine." 

In long- flowing robe, through the courtly crew, 

The Minstrel's form appears ; 
His locks are bleach'd with a silver hue, 

With the fulness of wasting years. 
" Sweet melody sleeps in the golden strings ; 
The minstrel of love and its guerdon sings, 

He sings of the Highest, the Best, 
Of all ye can covet with heart or eye ; 
But say what may sort with the majesty 

Of my Kaiser's crowning feast." 

" I rule not the singer," was Rudolph's word, 

" Nor recks he of earthly power ; 
He stands in the right of a greater Lord, 

And obeys the inspiring hour. 
As the storm- wind sweeps through the midnight air, 
One knows not from whence it is borne, or where; 

As the springs from a soundless deep ; 
So the minstrel's song from his bosom swells, 
Our feelings to wake, where in inmost cells 

Of the heart they strangely sleep." 



APPENDIX. 



Sudden and strong the Minstrel plays, 

And rapidly flows his strain : — 
A valiant knight to the chamois chase 

Rode forth across the plain, 
Him follow'd his squire with his hunting-gear $ 
When a tinkling sound accosts his ear 

On a meadow's gentle marge : 
'Twas the sacring bell that moved before, 
And a priest, who the Saviour's body bore, 

Came next with his hallo w'd charge. 

And the Count to earth has bow'd him low, 

His head all humbly bare, 
The faith of a Christian man to show 

In him our sins who bare. 
But a brooklet brawl'd o'er the meadow-side, 
High swell'd by the Giessbach's rushing tide, 

The wanderer's path it stay'd ; 
And softly he laid the host adown, 
And swiftly he doff 'd his sandal-shoon, 

The brawling brook to wade. 

Now whither away ? " the Count began, 

And he cast a wondering glance. 
Sir knight, I haste to a dying man, 

For heavenly food who pants : 
And here, as I sought my wonted way, 
The stepping-stones all have been torn away 

Ey the Giessbach's whirling force. 
Thus, lest a soul salvation miss, 
The brook with naked foot, 1 wis, 

Behoves me now to cross." 

But the Count set him up on his knightly steed, 

And reach'd him the bridle gay, 
That he fail not to solace a sinner's need, 

Nor the holy rite delay. 
Himself rode forth on the horse of his squire, 

To share in the chase at his heart's desire, 
z 2 



340 



APPENDIX. 



The other his way pursued, 
And thankfully came with morning red, 
And humbly back by the bridle led 

To the knight his courser good. 

" Now saints forfend," said that noble knight, 
" I should e'er bestride him more, 
In reckless chase, or heady fight, 

My Saviour's self that bore ! 
Mayst thou not make the good steed thine own, 
I freely devote him to God alone ; 

I give it to Him who gives 
To man, his bond-slave, breath and blood, 
And earthly honour, and earthly good ; 

In whom he moves and lives." 

" O, then, high Heaven, whose watchful ear 

Inclines to the poor man's vow, 
To thee give honour above and here, 

As Him thou hast honour'd now ! 
Thou noble count, whose knightly brand 
Widely hath waved in Switzerland, 

Seven daughters fair are thine : 
Each shall enrich thine ancient stem 
With the dower of a kingly diadem, 

Sent down to the latest line." 

The brow of the Kaiser is bent in thought, 

As he dream'd of distant years, 
Till the eye of that aged bard he caught, 

And the sense of his song appears. 
He recalls the face, so long unseen, 
And veils his tears with his mantle sheen : 
'Tis the priest himself is here ! 
All eyes are turn'd on their silent lord, 
All know the knight of the Giessbach's ford, 

And the hand of Heaven revere. 



APPENDIX. 



341 



Page 56. 

A story very similar to the Swiss legend of Tell is related 
in the Danish annals by Saxo Grammaticus ; in which Harold 
king of Denmark supplies the place of the land-vogt Gessler, 
Toko that of William Tell ; and this event, which is said to 
have happened in 965, is attended also with nearly the same 
incidents as those recorded in the Swiss accounts. It is far 
from being a necessary consequence (as is very justly observed 
in Coxe's Travels), that because the authenticity of the story 
concerning the apple is liable to some doubts, therefore the 
whole tradition relating to Tell is fabulous. Neither is it a 
proof against the reality of a fact, that it is not mentioned by 
contemporary historians. The general history of William Tell 
is repeatedly celebrated in old German songs, so remarkable 
for their ancient dialect and simplicity, as almost to raise the 
deeds they celebrate above all reasonable suspicion : to this may 
be added the constant tradition of the country, together with two 
chapels erected some centuries ago in memory of his exploits. 
The following is the passage from Saxo Grammaticus : — 

" Nec silentio implicandum quod sequitur. Toko quidam 
aliquandiu, regis (i. e. Haraldi Blaatand) stipendia meritus 
officiis quibus commilitones superabat complures virtutum 
suarum hostes effecerat. Hie forte sermone inter convivas 
temulentius habito tarn copioso se sagittandi usu callere jacti- 
tabat, ut pomum quantumcunque exiguum baculo e distantia 
superpositum prima spiculi directione feriret. Quae vox pri- 
mum obtrectantium auribus excepta regis etiam auditum at- 
tigit. Sed mox principis improbitas patris fiduciam ad filii 
periculum transtulit, dulcissimum vitas ejus pignus baculi loco 
statui imperans. Cui nisi promissionis auctor primalsagittae 
conatu pomum impositum excussisset, proprio capite inanis 
jactantiae pcenas lueret. Urgebat imperium regis militem 
majora promissis edere, alienae obtrectationis insidiis parum 
sobriae vocis jactum carpentibus. 

" Exhibitum Toko adolescentem attentius monuit, ut aequis 
auribus, capiteque indeflexo quam patientissime strepitum 
jaculi venientis exciperet, ne laevi corporis motu efficacissimae 

z 3 



342 



APPENDIX. 



artis experientiam frustraretur. Praeterea demendae formidinis 
consilium circumspiciens, vultum ejus, ne viso telo terreretur, 
avertit. Tribus deinde sagittis pharetra expositis prima quam 
nervo inseruit proposito obstaculo incidit. 

" Interrogatus autem a rege Toko cur plura pharetra? spicula 
detraxisset, cum fortunam arcus semel duntaxat experimento 
prosequi debuisset. fi Ut in te,' inquit, 4 primi errorem reli- 
quorum acumine vindicarem, ne mea forte innocentia poenam 
tui impunitatem experiretur violentia.' Quo tarn libero dicto 
et sibi fortitudinis titulum deberi docuit, et regis imperium 
poena dignum ostendit." 

Page 282. 

The following passage, on the Reglement of 1782, is 
translated from " Meiners* Briefs iiber die Schweitz" an in- 
teresting series of letters on Switzerland, published shortly 
before the French revolution : — 

" Even if the edict of 1782 had produced much greater 
advantages than it actually did produce, yet still we cannot 
blame the representative party for regarding it as the off- 
spring and the instrument of despotism : it was not left to 
the free choice of the citizens whether they would or would not 
accept a legislation which was to bind themselves and their 
posterity for ever, but the ambassadors of the guaranteeing 
powers excluded, as a preliminary step, from the conseil g^neVal, 
to which the edict was to be submitted, all those who had 
taken up arms on the 8th of April, or in the sequel ; and thus, 
in that general assembly in which the new edict was confirmed 
hardly a third of the burghers were present who had the right 
of voting on the validity or invalidity of new laws. In the 
edict i|self the most important rights were withdrawn from the 
people, or, at all events, subjected to restriction. What, 
however, gave the burghers greater pain than all these losses 
was their total disarming, the abolition of the circles of the 
burgher militia, and all the civic exercises which had hitherto 
been the most joyous popular festivals. Finally, in order to 
enchain the mind as well as the body, all speaking and writing 
on public affairs was forbidden, and a garrison of 1000 men 



APPENDIX. 



343 



was introduced, which, instead of being billeted on the burghers, 
was to live in separate barracks, as in fortresses. All the useful 
rights of the burghers were extended to the natives, and the 
senate was allowed the freedom of giving strangers, under the 
name of domiciles, allowance to settle for a year in Geneva, 
and to carry on mechanical trades, and other private vocations." 



Page 284. 

General view of the Thirteen Cantons, Subject Bailiwicks, 
and Confederated States, as they existed from the Peace of 
Aarau up to the French Revolution. 



I. The Cantons, 





Square 
Miles. 


Popula- 
tion. 


Contin- 
gent of 
Troops. 


Form 
of Govern- 
ment. 


Religion. 


1. Zurich 


676 


175,000 


1,400 [ 


Aristo-de- 7 
mocratic^ 


Protestant 


2. Berne 


3,840 


374,000 


2,000 


Aristocratic 


Protestant 


3. Lucerne 


544 


100,000 


1,200 


Aristocratic 


Catholic 


4. Uri - - 


550 


26,000 


400 


Democratic 


Catholic 


5. Schwytz 


326 


23,000 


600 


Democratic 


Catholic 


6. Unter- \ 
walden $ 


179 


23,500 


400 


Democratic 


Catholic 


7. Zug - - 


102 


20,000 


400 


Democratic 


Catholic 


8. Glarus - 

9. Basle - - 


336 
160 


16,000 
40,000 


400 
400 [ 


Democratic 

Aristo-de- 7 
mocratic J 


Mixed 
Protestant 


10. Freyburg 


467 


73,000 


800 


Aristocratic 


Catholic 


11. Soleure - 

12. Schaff- I 
hausen J 

13. Appenzell 


288 
128 
256 


45,000 
30,000 
51,000 


600 
400 [ 
600 


Aristocratic 

Aristo-de- ") 
mocratic J 

Democratic 


Catholic 
Protestant 
Mixed 


Totals - - 


7,852 


996,500 


9,600 







Language. 



German 

(" German & 
\ French 

German 

C German & 
I Italian 

German 
German 
German . 
German 

German 

C German & 
£ French 

German 
German 
German 



The greatest part of the materials for compiling these tables have been 
collected from Durand's Statistique El£mentaire de la Suisse. The mea- 
sures of extent which, in foreign authors, are generally given in German 
miles, 15 to a degree, are here reduced to geographical miles, 60 to a de* 
gree.— V. Planta, Hist. Switz. iii. 117. 

z 4 



3U 



APPENDIX. 



II. The Subject Bailiwicks. 



1. Thurgau 

2. Rheinthal 

Sargans - 
4. Gaster 
Uznach 
6. Gambs 
J7. Rappers- 
wyl - 

8. Baden 

9. Upper free 
Bailiwicks 

10. Lower 
free Baili- 
wicks - 

11. Bremgar- 
ten - 

12. Mellin- 
gen - 

13. Schwartz- 
enberg - 

14. Mo-rat 

15. Gran son 

16. Orbe and 
Echallens 

17. Bellin- 
zona - . 

18. Riviera, 
or Polese 

19. Val di 
Blenzo 

20. Lugano 

21. Locarno 

22. Val Mag. 
gia - . 

23. Men. 
drisio - 



Square 
Miles. 



Totals - - 



266 
84 
148 
149 



138 



r 85 



h - 



150 



•110 

205 
263 

158 
67 



Popula- 
tion. 



1831 



Contin- 

fent of 
roops. 



60,000 
13,000 
12,000 
9000 

5000 — 

24,000 200 

20,000 300 
5,000 — 

40,030 



33,000 

53,000 
30,000 

24,000 
16,000 



Sovereigns. 



344,000 



400' 
200 

100 

ioo; 



2400 



VIII. Old 

Cantons 
Ditto with 

Appenzell 
VIII. Old 

Cantons 
Schwytz and 

Glarus 

Zurich and 

Berne 
Zurich, 

Berne, and 

Glarus 
VIII. Old 

Cantons, 

Zurich, 

Berne, and 

Glarus 

Zurich, 
Berne,and 
Glarus 



Berne and 
Freyburg 



Uri, 

Schwytz, 

andUnter- 

walden 



All the can. 
tons, ex- 
cept Ap- 
penzell 



Religion. 



J Mixed 
| Mixed 
] Mixed] 
j Catholic 

^ Catholic 

£ Mixed 



>Catholic 



Catholic 



'Catholic 
Protestant 
Protestant 
Mixed 



|> Catholic 



^> Catholic 



Language. 



APPENDIX. 



345 



III. Confederated 'States. 




Square 
Miles. 


Population. 


Contin 
gent of 
Troops 


Form of Go- 
vernment. 


Religion. 


Language. 


I. Associates. 














Abbey of St. 
Gall. 

a. Alte Land- 
schaft - - 

b. Tockenburg 

2. City of St. 
Gall - - 

3. Town and 
territory of 
Bienne . - 

4. Muhlhausen 


j 124 

188 

J " 

| 144 


45,000 
46,000 
8,300 

5,500 
8,000 


jlOOG 

200 
200 


f Monarchic 
< limited mo- 
Cnarchy 
C Aristo-de- 
l mocratic 

C Mono-aris- 
(. tocratic 

Democratic 


? Catholic 
3 Mixed 
j Protestant 

| Protestant 
Protestant 


German 
German 
German 

German 
German 


II. Allies. 

1. Grison 7 
leagues J 
Their sub-} 
ject pro-V 
vinces 3 

2. TheValais 

3. Neufchatel 
and Valen- 
gin - 

4. Geneva - 


2,304 
960 

1,280 

| 240 

88 


150,000 
100,000 

100,000 

40,500 
34,000 


— 


Democratic 

Monarchical 

rSix dixaines 
3 demo cratic 
j One dixaine 
(.aristocratic 

(* Mono-aris- 
t tocratic 

C Aristo-de- 
l mocratic 


Mixed < 
Catholic 

> Catholic < 
j 

7 Protest- f 
$ ant £ 

| Protestant 


German 
and Ro- 
maunsch 

Italian 

French 
and 

VJ CI 4.11 d 11 

French 
and 
German 

French 


5. Part of the 
bishopric of 
Basle allied 
to the can- 
tons - 


|» 106 


24,000 




CMono-aris- 
C tocratic 


| Protestant 


French 


III. SOVE- 
REIGNTIES 

under the 
Protection 
op the Fo- 
rest Can- 
tons. 














1. Abbey of 
Engelberg - 

2. Gersau 


| 28 


4,500 
1,000 




Monarchical 
Democratic 


Catholic 
Catholic 


German 
German 


Totals - - 


5,462 


566,800 


1,400 








Totals in the} 
whole con- S- 
federation 3 


15,145 


1,907,300 


13,400 









346 



APPENDIX. 



Page 295. 

M. Thiers, in his History of the French Revolution, has 
criticised the opinion which prevailed in 1799, and which at- 
tached extreme importance to the occupation of Switzerland in 
warlike operations on a grand scale : — 

" On pensait alors," he says, "que la clef de la plaine etait dans 
les montagnes. La Suisse, placee au milieu de la ligne im- 
mense sur laquelle on allait combattre, paroissait la clef de tout 
le Continent. La France, qui occupait la Suisse, semblait 
avoir un avantage decisif. II semblait qu'en ayant les sources 
du Rhin, du Danube, du P6, elle en commandat tout le cours. 
C'e'tait la une erreur: on concoit que deux armies qui ap- 
puient imm^diatement une aile a des montagnes, comme les 
Autrichiens et les Francais, quand ils se battaient aux environs 
de Verone, ou aux environs de Rastadt, tiennent a la possession 
de ces montagnes, parceque celle des deux qui en est maitresse 
peut deborder l'ennemi par les hauteurs. Mais quand on se 
bat a cinquante ou cent lieues des montagnes, elles cessent 
d'avoir la m£me influence. Tandis qu'on s'epuiserait pour la 
possession du St. Gothard, les armies qui seraient sur le Rhin, 
ou sur le Bas P6 auraient le temps de decider du sort de 
1' Europe. Mais on concluait du petit au grand ; de ce que les 
hauteurs sont importantes sur un champ de bataille de quelques 
lieues, on en concluait que la puissance maitresse des A! pes, 
devait l'etre du Continent. La Suisse n'a qu'un avantage r£el ; 
c'est d'ouvrir des d£bouch£s directs a la France sur l'Autriche, 
eta l'Autriche sur la France. On concoit deslors que pour le 
repos des deux puissances et de l'Europe, la cloture de ces 
debouches soit un bienfait. Plus on peut empecher les points 
de contact et les moyens d'invasion, mieux on fait ; surtout 
entre deux £tats qui ne peuvent se heurter sans que le Continent- 
en soit £branle. C'est en ce sens que la neutralite interesse 
toute l'Europe, et qu'on a toujours bien fait d'en faire un 
principe de surete* gen£rale." 



APPENDIX. 



347 



Page 333. 

The following were the definitive measures adopted with 
respect to foreigners : — 

" Art. 1 . No foreigner shall fix his legal residence in any 
canton, unless he have previously obtained permission. 

" 2. Every foreigner is obliged to give notice to the police, 
within twenty-four hours after his arrival in the canton. 

" 3. Foreigners who after their arrival in the canton shall 
desire to remain more than three weeks, shall apply to the 
director-general of police, at the Alien-office. 

" 4. Foreigners who shall reside in the canton without 
being authorised shall be sentenced to pay a fine of 500 florins, 
and to two months' imprisonment. 

" 5. Keepers of furnished hotels, innkeepers, and house- 
holders, who shall have lodged foreigners without permission, 
shall be liable to a fine of 1000 florins, and to three months, 
imprisonment ; in case of a repetition of the offence, the penalty 
shall be doubled." 

The decree on the printing of political writings comprises 
the following articles : — 

" Art. I. No person shall sell, or cause to be printed, without 
the previous licence of the council of state, works relative to 
foreign policy. 

" 2. This licence shall not be given, till the MS, has been 
examined, to see if it contains any thing reprehensible. In 
both cases, it must be signed by the author and the printer, 
and deposited in the chancery. 

" 3. The author, printer, or bookseller, who shall transgress 
this order shall be brought before the tribunal, where they 
may be . condemned to a fine of 1000 florins, and a year's im- 
prisonment. The penalty may be increased, according to the 
contents of the writing, as the seriousness of the circum- 
stances may require." 



348 



APPENDIX. 



Page 335. 

It has not entered into our plan to particularise every petty 
rising which has recently taken place in the towns or rural 
districts of Switzerland, and the recital of which would not even 
possess the sanguinary interest which distinguishes the peasant 
insurrection of the seventeenth century. It may, however, 
conduce to the purposes of historical instruction, to mark the 
leading points of view in one or two of those districts, the for- 
tunes of which have chiefly claimed our attention in the past, 
and in which the continuance, or interruption, of former modes 
of being forms the most interesting, as well as instructive, 
feature in the present. 

Geneva, during nearly the whole course of the eighteenth 
century, has been already described as labouring under inces- 
sant agitation ; occasioned by the arrogance of a class of 
monied oligarchs, confronted with the growing force of an 
active and turbulent commonalty; and terminated only to- 
wards the close of that century in the agonies of social disso- 
lution. All the evils exhibited on more conspicuous theatres, 
arising from an obstinate monopoly of political power, broke 
forth within the narrow bounds of this Lilliputian common- 
wealth, with all the aggravations of those evils which are wont 
to result from hostile and external interference. Hence the 
insulting reglement of 1782, when the grasping spirit of native 
aristocracy was encouraged in its all engrossing claims by 
foreign bayonets. Hence also the reign of terror in 1794, 
when French support, which had previously been given to the 
oligarchs, was transferred to the scale of the democratic party. 
It is some consolation to those who would fain believe in the 
progress of their species, that the crash of those enormous for- 
tunes which, previously to the first revolution, were chiefly 
invested in French public securities, and the fall of that 
4 patrician ' dynasty, solely maintained by French influence, 
have been attended by the total disappearance of their conco- 
mitant ostentation and assumption ; while the terrible expe- 
rience of all parties has effectually softened their irrational 
embitterment. In the recent revolutionary changes which 



APPENDIX. 



349 



have occurred in Switzerland, Geneva has been amongst the 
places wholly exempt from disturbance. The constituted 
authorities there wisely took the initiative of such constitutional 
changes as the temper of the times required, by voluntarily 
conceding an extension of the elective franchise, and an 
abridgment of the tenure of public offices. 

The comparison of Geneva with Berne affords a striking 
instance of the difference between overweening oligarchy and 
pure aristocracy, In the former state, what was more revolt- 
ing than any practical grievance was aristocratic morgue, 
combined with purse-proud ostentation. In the latter, that 
systematic repression of popular developement, inherent in the 
nature of aristocracy, was accompanied at least with much of 
the dignified and paternal aspect with which philosophical 
minds have often invested that austere domination. Of such 
a government Montesquieu might truly have called moderation 
the soul — such might have found an approver in Dion, an 
eulogist in Plato. In Berne, at least equally with Venice, 
economy, prudence, and self-dependence held paramount 
sway ; pauperism, and consequent vice, were extirpated with 
unwearied care ; and the popular respect was secured by for- 
bearing to swell the public burthens. In Berne alone could 
a law have been regarded as truly aristocratic *, which enforced 
equal division of the paternal estate amongst the children. 

Not unrewarded by long esteem and permanence was the 
upright aristocracy of Berne ; and truly has it been stated by 
an eminent burgher of that canton f, with regard to its first 
overthrow in 1798, that the revolution did not find developement 
from within* " Without the aggression of hostile armies," 
(we still translate from the same authority), " the sound block 
of the old building would long have remained standing, and 
would have kept its decayed outworks standing along w T ith it. 
It is true that fermentation pervaded the Vaud, as well as 
several districts in the interior ; but matters would not have 
gone so far without French intervention. The German sub- 
jects of Berne, unmoved by the insinuations of French emis- 

* " Ein wahrhaftig aristokratisches Gesetz." — Meiners, Brief e iiber die 
Schweitz. ler Theil. 
f See Schlosser's Archiv fur Geschichte und Litteratur, 2er Band, p. 324, 



350 



APPENDIX. 



saries, fought resolutely, not to say furiously. They deemed 
themselves invincible, as of old, confiding in the protection of 
God and their own personal strength, unfortunately of too 
little account in modern warfare. Incendiary suggestions 
found no entrance, so long as their authors stuck to preaching 
freedom and equality ; but so soon as it occurred to them to 
ascribe the errors of government, and such military evolutions 
as to common men were inexplicable, to a secret understand- 
ing of their rulers and officers with the French, the popular 
rage instantly took a new direction against their leaders, as 
supposed secret adherents of the new-fangled notions of free- 
dom ; and horrible scenes ensued, which hastened the hour of 
dissolution." 



INDEX, 



A. 

Aa.rau, the peace of, 267. 

Ackermann, of Unterwalden, 
marches with 5000 men against 
the Bernese, and surprises their 
troops, 266. 

Adolphus, count of Nassau, elect- 
ed emperor, his character and 
death, 53. 

Agnadello, the battle of, 182. 

Agnes, queen of Hungary, 60. 

Albert of Hapsburg, 49. His cha- 
racter ; seizes on the imperial in- 
signia, 52. Aims at erecting a 
new dukedom in Helvetia, 53. 
Forbids his subjects on the fron- 
tiers all intercourse with the forest 
cantons, 58. Death of, 59. 

Albert, duke of Austria, demands 
from the Zurichers satisfaction 
for the burning of Rapper sweil, 
74. Besieges Zurich, 75. En- 
deavours to compel the people of 
Zug to renounce their connection 
with the Swiss league, 77. Con- 
cludes a treaty with the confe- 
derates, commonly known by 
the name of the Peace of Thor- 
berg, 79. 

Albigenses, 106. 

Alemanni, the, 13. 

Amberg, the Swiss land-vogt, 210. 

Amiens, the peace of, 318. 

Anabaptists, the, 209. Excesses of, 
213. 

Angouleme, duke d', 152. 

Appenzell, revolt of, 99. Independ- 
ence of, 103. 

Arbedo, the battle of, 114. 

Arnold of Cervola, 89. 

Arnold of Winkelried, a knight of 
Unterwalden, killed in the battle 
of Sempach, 94. 

Arnold, of Brescia, 199. 

Augusta Rauracorum, the colony 
founded by Munatius Plancus, 8. 

Austria forms an alliance with 
Zurich, 97. Vanquished by the 
genius of Bonaparte ; concludes 
a peace, 303. 



B. 

Baden, a disputation held at, 212. 
The catholic majority of the 
meeting declare themselves to 
have triumphed in the contro- 
versy ; and prohibit the works 
of Luther and Zwingli, 213. 

Bailli of Dijon, the French agent 
in Switzerland ; his threats to 
the Bernese, 168. Levies a force 
of 24,000 Swiss, 179. 

Barras, the French director, 306. 

Basle, the bishop of, 46. 

Basle, the university of, founded 
in 1460, 125. 

Beaume, Peter de la, 219. 

Berchthold of Rheinfelden ; death 
of, 33. 

Berchthold II., duke of Zaeringen, 
33. Appears in the presence of 
the emperor at the diet of 
Mentz, in 1097 ; surrenders the 
ducal office and dignity into the 
hands of Frederick of Hohen- 
staufen, 34. 

Berchthold IV., duke of Zaeringen, 
37. 

Berchthold V., duke of Zaeringen, 
38. Lay s the foundation of Berne ; 
places it as a free town of the 
empire under the immediate pro- 
tection of the emperor, 39. Re- 
fuses the imperial crown ; re- 
ceives compensation from Philip, 
son of the late emperor j his 
death 40. 

Berchthold", abbot of St. Gall, 46. 

Berenger of Landenberg, his 
cruelty and tyranny, 54. 

Berne erected into a free town of 
the empire by Berchthold V. duke 
of Zaeringen, 39. Becomes ob- 
noxious to the bordering nobility, 
81. Renews her league with the 
forest cantons, 84. Her plans of 
aggrandisement, 86. Empowered 
by the confederates to close a 
treaty with France, in which they 
engage to give no aid to the duke 
of Burgundy, 135. Declares war 
with Burgundy, 141. The cause 



352 



INDEX. 



of reform espoused by, 213. The 
government of, makes an effort 
to improve its currency by ex- 
cluding the small coins of other 
cantons from its territory, and 
lowering the nominal value of 
its own batzen, 249. Invests con- 
siderable sums in foreign secu- 
rities, particularly in the English 
funds, 295. Capitulation of, 311. 
A new constitution established 
at, 316. 

Berthelier, Philip, a Genevese exile, 
gains over the government of 
Freyburg, 217. Execution of, 218. 

Bodmer, general, marches at the 
head of 3000 men to the aid of 
the Toggenburgers, 264. 

Boizet, secretary of the Helvetic 
embassy, 318. 

Bolsec, an ex-Carmelite, exiled by 
the influence of Calvin for daring 
to attack the doctrine of predes- 
tination, 226. 

Boniface VIII., pope, 51. 

Bonnivard, prior, capture and im- 
prisonment of, 219. 

Bonnivet, general, 211. 

Borromeo, Charles, elevated at the 
age of three and twenty to the 
bishopric of Milan and dignity 
of cardinal ; forms an establish- 
ment, at Lucerne, for Jesuits, 
230. 

Boso, count, of Vienne, founder of 
the Second or Little Burgundian 
kingdom, 23. 

Brandenburg, the elector of, 76. 110. 

Brun, Rudolph, 71. Elected bur- 
gomaster for life, 73. Applies 
for aid to the forest cantons 
against duke Albert of Austria ; 
burns the town of Rappersweil, 
74. His character, 79. 

"Brune, general, proposes his inso- 
'ent ultimatum to the Swiss de- 
legates, 309. Ts accepted, 310. 
Destroys one of the finest monu- 
ments of Swiss courage and union, 
the ossuary of Morat, 311. 

Bucer, 225. 

Burgundians; they fix their resi- 
dence on both sides of the Jura, 
on the lake of Geneva ; adopt 
Christianity on their reception as 
Roman allies, 13. 



C. 

Cascina, Auius, 8. 

Csesar, Julius, defeats the Helve- 
tians, 6. 
CaJixtus II., pope, 33. 
Calvin, John, the second great re- 



former of the sixteenth century, 
born at Noyon in Picardy ; early 
education of; publishes a Latin 
commentary on the two books 
of Seneca, 223. Forced to fly 
from Paris ; repairs to the court 
of Margaret, queen of Navarre ; 
publishes his work on Christian 
doctrine " Institutio Christiana? 
Religionis," 224. Receives a com- 
mission from the government of 
Geneva as teacher of theology ; 
publishes his work on the Lord's 
Supper, 225. Inflexibly enforces 
the rigorous maintenance of or- 
thodoxy, 226. His character, 227. 

Cambray, the league of, 182. 

Campo-Basso, a Neapolitan fa- 
vourite of Charles, duke of Bur- 
gundy, 151. 

Campo-Formio, the treaty of, 302. 

Carlovingian dynasty, the, found- 
ed by Pepin, received its name 
from his son Charles, 21. 

Charlemagne crowned at Rome 
as emperor by the pope, in the 
year 800 ; introduces the culture 
of the vine into Helvetia, 22. 
death of, 23. 

Charles Martel, 21. 

Charles IV,, 78. 

Charles the Bold, duke of Burgun- 
dy, 130. His person and character, 
132. Enters Alsace at the head 
of 5000 horse, 137. Completes the 
conquest of Lorraine, 142. De- 
scription of his camp, 143. Lays 
siege to Granson, 144. Flight of, 

147. Re-appears in the Valais, 

148. Prepares to besiege Nancy, 
151. Death of, 152. 

Charles III., duke of Savoy, 217. 
Enters the town of Geneva, and 
disarms the burghers, 218. 

Chenaux, Peter Nicholas, of La 
Tour deTreme, 276. Death of, 277. 

Childeric III., deposed by the as- 
sembly at Soissons, 21. 

Cingari, or Zingari (in German 
Zigeuner, gipsies), their supposed 
origin, 111. 

Cisalpine republic, 303. 

Claudius Cossus, the spokesman of 
the Helvetians* throws himself at 
the feet of the emperor Vitellius 
to supplicate his mercy for his 
country, 10. 

Clement III., pope, 33. 

Clothair II., 19. 

Clovis engages in hostilities against 
the Alemanni, and defeats them, 
14. 

Conrad, emperor, 28. 
Cop, Michael, rector of the univer- 
sity of Paris, 224. 



INDEX. 



353 



Coucy, Ingelram de, count of Sois- 
sons, 90. 

Crusaders, the first array of, set out 
in the year 1096, 35. 

Crusez, colonel, 311. 

Cuno, of Staufen, invested, in 1379, 
with the dignity of abbot of St. 
Gall, 99. His tyrannical and op- 
pressive conduct, 100. 

D. 

Dagobert, son and succtssor of 
Clothair, 19. 

Davel, major Daniel Abraham, a 
decided political and religious 
enthusiast, assembles the regi- 
ment of militia which he com- 
manded, surprises the town of 
Lausanne, 291. Offers his aid 
for the restoration of independ- 
ence to the assembled town coun- 
cil ; deserted by his troops ; ar- 
rest of; cruelly tortured ; and, 
lastly, beheaded, 291. 

Derschau, von, the royal commis- 
sary, 287. 

Diebold of Neufchatel, 141. 

Diviko, general, defeats the Ro- 
mans on the lake of Geneva, 4. 
Commissioned to treat with Caesar 
on the part of the Helvetians, 6. 

Dornach, the castle of, sustains a 
siege of twenty-four hours, 310. 

Ducrest, a Genevese burgher and 
noble, opposes himself to the 
building of new fortifications. 
A penal sentence passed against 
him; takes refuge under a fo- 
reign jurisdiction ; sets at defi- 
ance the council of Geneva ; his 
offensive writings ; condemned 
to perpetual imprisonment in the 
castle of Aargau, where he died, 
281. 

Dulliker, the avoyer, comes to 
Entlibuch accompanied by secular 
and spiritual dignitaries, to re- 
monstrate with the elders of the 
communes ; their reception, 249. 

E. 

Eck, doctor, of Ingolstadt, 212. 

Edward III. of England, 90. 

Einsiedlen, the abbot of, maintains 
in opposition to Schwytz a right 
of taxing the forest lands, 243. 

Elizabeth, widow of the emperor 
Albert, compromises with the 
bishop of Basle; issues warnings 
to the towns and villages not to 
harbour or conceal the mur- 
derers, 59. 



Elizabeth, countess, wife of count 
Frederick of Toggenburg, 117. 

Erasmus, his Latin version of the 
New Testament, with notes; his 
writings disseminated; visits the 
university of Basle, 206. 

Erlach, Rudolph of, a leader of the 
troops of Berne, 83. Saves his 
country, and lays down his au- 
thority ; withdraws himself from 
public life ; lives to an advanced 
age; his death, 86. 

Erlach, general, marches from 
Berne to Langenthal ; engages in 
conflict with the insurgents, 254. 
Obtains a military command of 
the Vaud; enters the great council 
of Berne, accompanied by eighty 
of his officers, invested with full 
powers to commence hostilities, 
309. Receives instructions not 
to attack the French ; withdraws 
his troops behind the Aar, 103. 
Retreats towards the Oberland ; 
his murder, 312. 

Escalade, the, of Geneva, 233. 



F. 

Faber, episcopal vicar at Constance, 
210. 

Farel, a colleague of Calvin, 221. 
Engaged in preaching the re- 
formed doctrines in Geneva, 225. 

Ferdinand III., emperor, proclaims 
a sentence of outlawry against 
the fugitive insurgents through- 
out the whole Roman empire, 
255. 

Foix, Gaston de, duke of Nemours, 
general of Louis XII., forces the 
combined papal and Spanish army 
to raise the siege of Bologna ; is 
killed in the battle of Ravenna, 
186. 

Francis I., proposes terms of alliance 
with the Swiss, 193. Closes a 
treaty with them called the Per- 
petual Peace, 196. Defeat of, by 
Charles V.; taken prisoner ; joined 
by 8000 Swiss recruits on his 
return from Spanish captivity, 
212. 

Franks, their power established in 
Gaul, 14. Their kings the ex- 
clusive rulers of Helvetia, 16. 

Frederick of Hohenstaufen, obtains 
the dukedom of Swabia ; renews 
the war with Berchthold II., 33. 

Frederick, duke of Austria, heads 
the forces in the engagement of 
theStoss; retreats to the Tyrol, 
102. Concludes a truce with 
Switzerland, 104. Abets pope 

A 



854 



INDEX. 



John XXII. ; is outlawed, 107. 
Takes refuge at Freyburg ; revolt 
of his vassals, 108. Repairs to 
Constance; tenders his submission 
to the emperor ; obtains his par- 
don; hisdomainssurrenderedinto 
the hands of the emperor; his 
lands restored to him, 109. 

Frederick, count of Toggenburg, 
accepts the co-burghership of 
Zurich ; obtains the freedom of 
Schwytz, 116. His death, 117. 

Frederick, emperor, concludes a 
dishonourable peace with the 
duke of Burgundy, 142. 

Frederick II., king of Prussia ; his 
magnanimity, 288. 

Freyburg, an insurrection at, 276. 



G. 

Galba, emperor, his murder, 8. 

Gallo-Celtic, the inhabitants of 
Switzerland ally themselves with 
the Cimbri and Teutones, 4. 

Gaudot, the advocate general, se- 
cedes to the royal side ; becomes 
an object of popular indignation ; 
becomes procurator general ; his 
residence attacked by a mob ; is 
shot, 288. 

Gaul invaded by the Helvetians, 5. 

Geneva, the original foundation 
of, unknown ; its situation, 2 In. 
The burghers of, refuse the 
yoke of Savoy, 217. Swears a 
league with Berne for mutual aid, 
219. The town of, closely block- 
aded ; excommunicated ; expels 
the bishop, 221. Closes a per- 
petual league with Berne, 223. 
A consistory permanently esta- 
blished at, 226. Influence of the 
clergy ; a confession issued, com- 
posed by Farel, 229. Popular 
discontents in, 281. The govern- 
ment of, overthrown, and a new 
constitution established, 285. 
Closes a league with France and 
Savoy ; the allied troops appear 
before the gates of; reglement 
of 1782, 286. Effects of, 296. The 
reign of terror, 301. 

Genevans labour to consolidate 
their freedom ; they drive the 
adherents of Savoy out of the 
town, 219. 

German tribes, early institutions of; 
laws of ; rules of evidence ; trial 
by ordeal ; trial by single combat, 
19. A number of privileges con- 
ferred on them by Henry the 
Fowler, 26. 

Germany, state of the empire, 49. 



Poetry becomes a favourite oceu, 
pation in ; schools established in, 

50. 

Gessler, Hermann, builds a fortress 
which he calls Uri's Restraint ; 
tyranny of, 54. Shot by William 
Tell in the pass near Kussnacht, 
57. 

Giornico, the battle of, 155. 
Goths, 13. 
Grafenried, 311. 

Granson, the battle of, 145. The 
town and castle of, retaken by 
the Swiss, 147. 

Gregorian calendar, 231. 

Gregory VI I., pope (or Hildebrand), 
his parentage ; a review of his 
character; sends forth a triple 
prohibition to the clergy, on the 
several points of celibacy, simony, 
and investiture, 31. Excom- 
municates Henry IV. ; frees all 
the imperial vassals from their 
oath of allegiance, 31. Banish- 
ment of; dies in exile at Salerno, 
a. d. 1085, 33. 

Grisons, description of the ; earb- 
history of, 235. Different dialect's 
spoken in ; forms of government, 
237. Become subject to Austria ; 
form a treaty of a perpetual peace 
with Spain ; recover their free- 
dom and independence, 246. 

Gross, colonel, the Bernese, 310. 

Gruet, Jacob, condemned to the 
block for his writings, 226. 

Gruyeres, the counts of ; cede their 
extensive domains to Berne and 
Freyburg, 222. 



H. 

Hagenbach, Peter von, a tried ser- 
vant of Charles duke of Bur- 
gundy, obtains the government 
of Alsace and other lands, 134. 
His tyrannical conduct obtains 
for him the appellation of the 
"Scourge of God," 135. His 
immoralities, extortions, and 
judicial murders ; increases the 
tolls; supports by his influence 
every enemy of Switzerland, 136. 
enters Breisach on Good Friday, 
at the head- of some Lombards; 
disturbs divine service ; commits 
various acts of violence ; taken pri- 
soner, in the name of duke Sigis- 
mund of Austria, 139. Brought 
to trial ; his execution, 140. 

Haller, Albert von, 297. 

Hammerlin, Felix, surnamed Mal- 
leolus, a canon of Zurich, a very 
learned and sensible man, a vo- 



INDEX. 



355 



luminous writer, passes for a ma- 
gician with the multitude ; che- 
rishes many superstitious fancies, 
126. 

Hangest, Claude d', abbot of St. 
Eloy, at Noyon, 223. 

Helvetia, barbarian inroads on, 12. 
The recovery of, under the Frank 
kings ; improved cultivation of ; 
influence of the clergy, 20. The 
cultivation of the vine introduced 
into, 22. Beneficial effects of the 
crusades ; improvements in agri- 
culture, 36. A review of the 
principal points of political, social, 
and military developement, 159. 

Helvetians, invade Gaul, 5. Defeat 
of, by Julius Caesar ; become 
allies of Rome, 6. Degraded 
into a union with the province 
of Gaul; becomes subject to 
Rome, 10. Their deities ; ad- 
mitted to the rights of Roman 
citizenship, 11. 

Helvetic body, their relation with 
France, 269. The dissolution of; 
the establishment of a constitu- 
tion unitaire, 312. 

Helvetic society, viewed with an 
evil eye by the cantonal govern- 
ment ; its aim, 293. 

Henry I., surnamed the Fowler; 
his mode of defence against the 
Hungarians ; modern civilisation 
ascribed to him, 25. 

Henry III., son of the emperor 
Conrad, ascends the imperial 
throne ; his death, 29. 

Henry IV., succeeds his father 
Henry I II. to the imperial throne; 
opposes his whole power to the 
papal ordinances of Hildebrand ; 
excommunication of, 31. De- 
poses the pope; takes refuge in 
Italy with his wife and children ; 
returns to Germany; begins a 
war of extermination, 32. His 
death, 33. 

Henry V., 33. 

Henry VII., pronounces the ban of 
the empire against the murderers 
of Albert, 59. Recognises the 
freedom of the forest cantons; 
sets out on an Italian expedition; 
his death.. 60. 

Henry of Halden, an aged and 
zealous friend of freedom, 54. 

Henzi, Samuel, banishment of; 
returns; heads a band of male- 
contents ; taken and beheaded, 
275. 

Holy league, 192. 

Hottinger, Nicholas, a shoemaker, 
illegally condemned to death, 
210. 

A A 



Hugo, count of Bucheck, 65. 

Huss, John, of Bohemia, con- 
demned to the stake by the 
council of Constance, 107. 



I. 

Isabella, daughter of Edward III. 
of England, marriage of, with 
Ingelram de Coucy, count of 
Soissons and earl of Bedford, 

90. 

Istria, Capo d', count, his declara- 
tion to the Zurichers, 328. 

Ittingen, the monastery of, plun- 
dered and burned, 210. 



J. 

Jesuits, establishment of, at Lu- 
cerne, 230. The order of, re- 
vived in Freyburg and the Valais, 
334. 

Jetzer, a tailor, of Berne, his cre- 
dulity imposed upon by the Do- 
minican friars, 202. 

John, duke, son of duke Rudolph, 
assassinates his uncle, the em- 
peror, 59. 

John XXII., pope, appears before 
the council of Constance; his 
flight, 107. Brought prisoner to 
Constance; the council declares 
him worthy of the stake ; his de- 
position ; in custody for several 
years ; goes to Florence ; dies 
cardinal bishop of Frescati, 
110. 

John, cardinal of Medici, succeeds 
to the papal chair by the name of 
pope Leo. X, 190. Extends the 
sale of indulgences, 204. 

John of Diesbach, 212. 

Julia Alpinula, only daughter of 
Julius Alpinus, endeavours to 
save her father's life, 9. 

Julius Alpinus, the execution of, 9. 

Julius II., pope, plans the league 
of Cambray ; his hatred of the 
French ; makes overtures to 
Venice, 182. Convokes an oppo- 
sition council at Rome; thunders 
his anathemas on the council of 
Pisa, 185. Engages Spain, Eng- 
land, and Venice in the holy 
league against France, 186. His 
death, 190. 



L. 

Laupen, battle of, 83. 
Lausanne, the synod of, 225. 

2 



356 



IN DBA. 



Lavater, 297. 

Lentzburg, the county of, a levee 
en masse proclaimed throughout, 
251. 

Leopold, duke, invades Switzer- 
land, 61, 

Leopold III., duke of Austria, 
marches into Aargau, 93. Falls 
in the battle of Sempach, 94. 

Leopold IV., surnamed the Proud, 
95. 

Lorraine, the conquest of, by 
Charles, duke of Burgundy, 142. 

Louis, duke of Bavaria, 60. 

Louis XL, his character, 131. Closes 
a nine years' truce with Charles, 
duke of Burgundy, 147. En- 
deavours to gain the princess 
Mary, daughter of the duke of 
Burgundy, for his son, 152. 

Louis XII., king of France, levies 
troops in Switzerland, to assist 
him in the conquest of Genoa, 
181. Convenes a council of the 
church at Pisa, 185. His death, 
193. 

Louis' XVIII. invades Spain, 332. 

Luc, count du, the French ambas- 
sador ; his treatment of Massner 
and his son, 270. 

Lucerne, admitted into the confe- 
deracy, 67. Lowers the value of 
its batzen, 249. 

Leuenberger, Nicholas, elected to 
preside over the league of the 
four cantons of Lucerne, Berne, 
Basle, and Soleure, 252. Chief 
of the leagued burghers, 253. 
Betrayed by his comrades ; im- 
prisoned at Berne, and beheaded, 
254. 

Luther, 206. 

Luthold of Regensberg, 45. 



M. 

Magyars (or Hungarians), their 

incursions into Switzerland, 25. 
Mamelukes, 217. 

Manesse, Roger, burgomaster of 
Zurich, his wise and moderate 
administration, 86. 

Margaret, queen of Navarre, sister 
of Francis, 224. 

Marignano, the battle of, 195. 

Martin V., 110. 

Mary, princess, daughter of the 
duke of Burgundy, a marriage 
treaty closed for her with the 
duke Maximilian of Austria, 
152. 

Massena, the victory of, and the 
destruction of Suwarrow's army, 
316. 



Massner, Thomas, of Coire, the 
head of the Austrian party, be- 
comes obnoxious to France ; his 
son kidnapped by the French 
agent at Coire ; takes prisoner 
the duke of Vendome ; his flight ; 
his property confiscated, 270. A 
thousand ducats offered for him ; 
lost his life by the oversetting of 
a carriage, 271. 

Massner, young, liberated, 271. 

Maximilian, the archduke, a mar- 
riage treaty entered into by the 
states of the Netherlands with 
princess Mary; concludes a 
treaty of peace with Louis XL, 
153. * Marches in person at the 
head of 15,000 men to attempt 
the subjection of the Gr'i'sons, 
171. Concludes a peace and con- 
firms the confederates in the pos- 
session of their ancient rights 
and conquests, 172. Treats with 
the Swiss, 181. Abandons the 
Roman expedition, 182. 

Maximilian, son of Ludovico Moro, 
invested with the duchy of Milan, 
189. Betrayed by one of his ge- 
nerals ; shuts himself up in No- 
vara ; blockaded there by the 
French, 191. 

Mazarin, the French minister, 256. 

Mazze, the, 113. 

Menard, general, 307. 

Mengaud, demands the dismissal 
of the English ambassador, 305. 
Threatens the diet of the confe- 
deration with the entrance of the 
French troops; his reception at 
Zurich and Berne, 306. Ac- 
quainted with the political sys- 
tem of Berne ; his reply, 308. 

Merovingian race, decline and fall 
of the, 20. 

Merseburg, the battle of, 33. 

Milan, a college established at, by 
Charles Borromeo, 230. 

Montrichard, the French resident 
in Switzerland, 318. 

Morat, the battle of, 150. The 
ossuary of, destroyed, 311. 

Morgarten, the battle of, 63. 

Munatius Plancus, 8. 

Murner, Thomas, a friar of Lu- 
cerne, a vehement opponent of 
the Reformation, 213. 



N. 

Naefels, the battle of, 97. 

Nancy j the battle of, 156. 

Napoleon Bonaparte constructs 
the Cisalpine republic, 303. Con- 
fiscates all property belonging to 



INDEX. 



357 



the Orisons, 304. His declara- 
tion to the inhabitants of Switz- 
erland, .320. His conference with 
the Swiss delegates ; his act of 
mediation, 323. Recalls his troops 
out of Switzerland, 324. His 
fall, 326. Returns from Elba, 
330. 

Nicolas of the Flue, a hermit, ap- 
pears at the diet of Stantz ; his 
address, 158. 

Novara, the siege of, 191. 

Noviodunum, an equestrian colony 
founded at, 8. 



O. 

Oberland, restoration of the mass 
in, by the men of Hasli, 213. 

Ochs, the delegate of Basle at Paris, 
sketches an Helvetic constitution 
on the model of the French re- 
public, 306. 

CEcolampadius, 212. 

Oeschli, a preacher, put to the 
rack ; set at liberty, 210. 

Olivetan, Peter Robert, 223. 

Orgetorix, an Helvetian leader, 5. 

Ossola, the valleys of, taken pos- 
session of by the confederates, 
112. 

Ostrogoths, 15. 
Otho the Great, 24. 
Otho of Granson, bishop of Basle, 
58. 

P. 

Pancratius, the ci-devant abbot of 
St. Gall, 324. 

Paul III., pope, 229. 

Pavia, the siege of, 212. 

Pays de Vaud, a singular attempt 
at revolt, made in 1723, 291. 

Pepin the Little founds the new 
Carlovingian dynasty, 21. Di- 
vides his kingdom between his 
sons, 22. 

Pergola, Agnolo della, general of 
Philip Maria Visconti, takes pos- 
session of Val Levantina, 114. 

Pestalozzi, 334. 

Peter of Amiens, 35. 

Peter of Halden, arrest of; con- 
demned to decapitation, 156. 

Pfaffenbrief, a set of regulations so 
called, 87. 

Philip, surnamed the Good, duke of 
Burgundy ; his death, 130. 

Philomardo, bishop of Veroli, 187. 

Pierre Louis, the French ambassa- 
dor at Lucerne, 188. 

Pignerol, a treaty of toleration 
closed at, 256. 



Pisa, the council of, 185. 
Plague, the, 164. 

Planta, Rudolph, falls on theValte- 
line ; massacre of several hun- 
dred protestants, 240. 

Poggio, cardinal, 111. 

Printing, the invention of, 199. 

Pucci, the legate, demands the de- 
struction of all the Lutheran 
writings, 206. 



R. 

Rabholz, a leader of the Toggen- 
burg party against the abbot of 
St. Gall, 264. 

Raccaud, John Peter, 276. 

Rapp, general, addresses a declara- 
tion from Napoleon to the cantons 
of the Helvetic republic, 320. 

Raron, baron Guiscard of, captain, 
general of the Valais, and co- 
burgher of Berne ; the popular 
resentment against him, 112. 

Ravenna, the battle of, 186. 

Reding, Aloys, the Swiss landam. 
man, placed at the head of the 
senate ; his deposition, 316. 

Reformation, effect of the, 227. 

Renata, duchess, daughter of Louis 
XII. of France, and wife of Her- 
cule d'Este, 225. 

R£ne, count of Lorraine, 157. 

Rhaetia the conquest, of, by the 
Romans, 7. 

Rhsetian league, the, 237. 

Rhyner, colonel, shot before the 
gates of Berne, 311. 

Richard, duke of Cornwall, buys 
the imperial crown of the arch- 
bishops of Cologne and Mentz, 44. 

Rocquebertin, the French ambassa- 
dor at Zurich, 182. 

Romans conquer Rhastia, 7. 

Rome distracted by the contending 
claims of three popes, 29. 

Romont, Jacob de, count de Vaud, 
141. 

Ronchant, a Burgundian, 144. 

Rothenthum, the battle of, 313. 

Rousseau, the works of, burned ; 
sentenced by the parliament of 
Paris to imprisonment ; his flight, 
283. 

Rudolf, duke of Swabia, revolts 
from the emperor, 31. Mortally 
wounded in the battle of Merse- 
burg, 33. 

Rudolf, count of Hapsburg; his 
birth, 42. Character and early con- 
duct of, 83. Accepts the vogtship 
cf the forest lands; conciliates the 
abbot of St. Gall ; elected em- 
peror, 46. A change takes place 



358 



INDEX. 



in his character, 47. Commences 
hostilities against Berne and Sa- 
voy ; his death, 48. 

Rudolph Brun, 71. 

Rudulph of Werdenberg, 101. 

Ruti, the monastery of, pulled down 
bv the peasantry, 51. 

Rutli, the oath of, 56. 



S. 

St. Jacob, the battle of, 123. 

St. George, league of, called the 
Swabian, and, derisively, the Pet- 
ticoat league, 167. 

St. Gall, the monastery of, 23. 

St. Gall, Leodegar, abbot of, 261. 
His arbitrary conduct, 265. His 
cloisters and castles ravaged and 
besieged by the troops of Zurich, 

264. Takes refuge at Augsburg, 

265. Refuses to accept the peace 
of Aarau ; passes the remainder 
of his life in exile, 267. 

St. Gall, Joseph, abbot of, 267. 
St. Julian, an armistice concluded 
at, 220. 

Salis, the head of the French party 
in the Grisoms, 238. 

Samson Bernard, 205. 

Savoy, the dukes of, 217. 

Savoy, the territory of, entered by 
6000 Swiss, 218. 

Saxons brought into subjection ; em- 
brace the Christian religion, 22. 

SchafFhausen makes itself mas- 
ter of Rappersweil, 74. Leagues 
with the confederacy, 173. In- 
vades the Bernese territory at 
Brugg, 251. 

Schauenburg, general, 309. Be- 
sieges the castle of Dornach, 310. 

Schwend, Conrad, burgomaster of 
Zurich, 169. 

Schinner, Matthew, bishop of Sion, 
enters Switzerland with a store of 
gold and absolutions, 182. Closes 
a league between the pope and 
the cantons " for the defence of 
the church ; " parentage and 
character of; his rise in the 
church, 184. Made cardinal, 185. 
presents the Swiss ambassadors 
with two sumptuous presents 
from the pope, 187. 

Schmidli, Jacob, of the Sulzig, sen- 
tenced to be strangled, and then 
burned with his books and writ- 
ings ; his family banished, 293. 

Schwartzenberg, prince, the Aus- 
trian commander-in-chief; his 
proclamation, 327. 

Schwytz, 41. 

Sempach, the battle of, 94, 



j Sequani, 6. 

Servetus, Michael, suffers at the 
! stake, 296. 

I Sforza, Ludovico, surnamed Moro, 
I or the Moor, duke of Milan, de- 
tested and abandoned by his sub- 
jects, places himself under the 
protection of the emperor Maxi- 
milian, 177. Reconquers his duchy, 
178. Shut up in Novara; de- 
serted by his officers ; betrayed by 
the Swiss, 179. Languishes out 
his life in a French dungeon, 180. 
Sigismund, duke of Austria, makes 
overtures of alliance to the Swiss, 
137. Demands the release of his 
lands from Charles the Bold, 
duke of Burgundy ; enters Switz- 
erland in person ; his reception, 
139. 

Sillinen, Joseph von, provost of 
Beronmunster, 138. 

Soleure, the siege of, 65. Magnani- 
mous conduct of the besieged 
burghers, 66. Capitulation of the 
town, 310. 

Spain invaded by the French under 
Louis XVIII., 332. 

Spoon league, 220. 

Stantz, the covenant of, 159. 

Stein, Jacob von, 250. 

Stephen III., pope, 21. 

Stetler, colonel, shot before tht 
gates of Berne, 311. 

Stoss, an engagement takes place 
at, between the Austrians and 
Appenzellers, 101. 

Strasburg, a French church esta- 
blished at, by Calvin, 225. 

Stussi, Rudolf, burgomaster of 
Zurich, 116. His arrogant treat- 
ment of the people of Uznach ; 
his projects of aggrandisement, 
117. Enters into an alliance of- 
fensive and defensive, with Aus- 
tria, 121. His death, 122. 

Suwarrow, the Russian general, 315. 

Swabian war, 169. 

Switzerland, its boundaries, climate, 
2. Aspect of the country; an- 
cient inhabitants, 3. The growth 
of towns in, 27. Invaded by 
Leopold ; visited by a great 
plague, 84. Decline of Austrian 
power and influence in, 98. Po- 
pular superstitions in, 127. As- 
trology, and faith in supernatural 
signs, retain their hold univer. 
sally, 247. Religious war in, 259, 
contagious sickness in, 260. Ha 
tred of innovation, 290. Sci- 
ences and arts diffused through- 
out, 297. The effects of the 
French revolution in, 299. Tn» 
roads of the French and A us. 



INDEX. 



s:>9 



trians, 315. Twenty-two cantons 
recognised in, 330. Becomes a 
party to the holy alliance, 332. 
Foreign police and surveillance 
of the press become new topics of 
discussion, 333. Progress of edu- 
cation in, 3^4. 



T. 

Talleyrand, 318. 

Tell, William, 56. Shoots Gessler, 
57. 

Teutones, 4. 

Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, 
15. 

Thorberg, the peace of, 79. 
Three leagues, 237. 
Tigurini, 4. 

Toggenburgers profess the reformed 
faith 263. Proclaim war on the 
abbot of Saint Gall, 264. Plan a 
new constitution, which they 
bring before the diet of Aarau, 
265. 

Trembley, the syndic, commander 
of the garrison, and conductor of 
the defensive preparations of the 
council of Geneva, 282. 

Tremouille, la, the French general, 
192. 

Trent, the council of, opened ; its 

decrees, 229. 
Turman, Rudolph, of Uri, betrays 

Sforza Ludovico of Milan ; his 

execution, 180. 



U. 

Ulrich, duke of Wirtemburg, 192. 

Unternerer, Antony, a quack doc- 
tor and fanatic, addresses a sum- 
mons in writing to the govern- 
ment of Berne; his arrest, 317. 

Uri closes a league with Schwytz 
and Unterwalden, 41. 



V. 

Valteline, massacre of the protest- 
ants in the, marked with cir- 
cumstances of exquisite atrocity, 
239. 

Vein dcils 13 

Vaud, the conquest of, by the Ber- 
nese, 222. 

Vend6me, duke de, grand prior of 
France, taken prisoner by Mass- 
ner, and delivered up to the 
Austrians, 270. 

Vercelli, the bishop of, the nrst per- 
manent nuncio, 230. 



Vergennes, the French minister, 
the enemy of Genevan independ- 
ence ; his death, 286. 

Vienna, the congress of, 330. 

Villmergen, the battle of, 259. A 
second action takes place in, be- 
tween Swiss and Swiss, 266. 

Visconti, Philip Maria, duke of 
Milan, 114. 

Vitellius, 8. 

Volmar, Melchior, a German, 223. 
W. 

Waldenses, 106. Intercessions made 
in behalf of, at the court of Turin, 
256. 

Waldmann, Hans, the son of a pea- 
sant of Zug, burgomaster ; de- 
capitated, 167. 

Wehrli, Marcus, a zealous foe of 
the new doctrines, beheaded, 214. 

Weiss, Rudolf, military commander 
of the Vaud, 307. Dismissed from 
the command, 308. 

Werner, archbishop of Mentz, 46. 

Wesen surprised by a treacherous 
junction of the burghers with the 
Austrians, 96. 

Westphalia, the peace of, 246. 

Wickham,the English ambassador, 
306. 

Wickliffe, translates the Holy 
Scriptures into the mother tongue, 
107. 

Willi, John James, the shoemaker 
of Horgen, the ringleader of an 
insurrection in Zurich, put to 
death, 324. 

Wallhausen, a solemn league sworn 
at, by the peasantry, 250. 

Worms, the, diet of; condemns the 
Swiss league, 77. Another diet 
at, 167. 

Wyttenbacn, Thomas, 208. 

Z. 

Zasringen, the dukes of, possess 
the delegated prerogatives over 
the empire, 37. 

Ziegler, bishop, 211. 

Zofingen, the confederate, council 
of war sits at, 254. 

Zurich, situation of, character of 
the burghers ; government of, 70. 
Conspiracy of the nobles, 74. Siege 
of, 75. Forms an alliance with 
Austria, 98. Forms an alliance 
with the countess Elizabeth, 117. 
the league of Austria declared 
null and void, 124. An anecdote 
of the youth of, 130. The Re- 
formation commenced at, 208. A 



360 INDEX. 



diet held at; their declaration, 

327. 

Zug and Lucerne stamp a small 
cross on the new coinage of Zu- 
rich, 214. 

Zwingli, Ulrich, birth of j distin- 



guished in boyhood by his ardour 
for knowledge; placed as a 
preacher in the cathedral at Wir- 
temburg, 205. Diffuses his doc- 
trine in small pamphlets, 207. 
His death, and manner of, 215. 



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